Partial curfew in AP for 14 days from 5 May

The decision was taken by Chief Minister Y.S Jagan Mohan Reddy during a review meeting held here at the camp office.

The Chief Minister directed the officials to focus on identifying the primary contacts at the earliest possible by conducting tests. He also instructed the authorities to see that there is no shortage of doctors and paramedical personnel in the government empanelled hospitals. Further, Jagan directed that all hospitals should have enough oxygen supplies to treat the patients. He told authorities to import oxygen and make suitable arrangements to store it and said that no hospital should report oxygen shortage.

Hospital beds

The officials, meanwhile, informed Jagan that so far a total of 16,602,873 tests have been conducted across the state at an average rate of 3,10,915 tests per month. There are currently 558 COVID hospitals in the state with a total of 44,599 beds of which 37,760 are occupied by COVID-19 patients. Besides these, around 3,597 patients were being treated on ventilators and 1,01,204 were in home isolation, the officials said.

COVID care centers

There are 41,780 beds in 81 COVID care centers (CCCs) across the state, the officials said, where 9,937 patients have received treatment till 2 May. They added that nearly 31,843 beds are still available at CCCs.

Oxygen

The officials said oxygen facilities are available in 146 hospitals across the state and there are 26,446 beds with oxygen pipeline in those hospitals. They said 420-500 metric tonnes of oxygen are being used on average daily and it is estimated that the usage may increase by the end of the second week of May. While 480 metric tonnes of oxygen is allotted for Andhra Pradesh, only 448 MT, including government and private hospitals, is being used due to lack of tankers for transportation of oxygen, the officials said and added that tankers are needed for transportation and storage of oxygen. The officials said they have requested the Central government to increase supply of oxygen to the state keeping in view the increasing demand and added that they have requested to supply 200 MT of oxygen each from Perambadur (Tamil Nadu) and Bellary (Karnataka) and also to provide tankers for transportation of oxygen.

Medicines availability

The officials said eight lakh Remedsiver injections were ordered from Mylan lab and added that 5,67844 N-95 masks, 7,67,732 PPE kits, 35,46,100 surgical masks, 2,04960 isolation kits are available.

Vaccination

The officials informed the Chief Minister that the first dose of vaccine has been administered to 52 lakh people who are above 45 years and said 1,33,07,899 people are yet to get vaccinated.

Setting up medical colleges

Reviewing progress of Nadu Nedu works (health), the Chief Minister said priority must be given to setting up medical colleges across the state and expediting works in this regard. Works should start in the colleges where judicial preview and tender process are completed, he said, and asked district collectors to ensure no delay in sanctioning funds for acquisition of land for medical colleges in East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna, and Kurnool districts.

The officials informed Jagan that tenders related to medical colleges in Paderu, Pulivendula, Piduguralla and Machilipatnam were awarded and the tender process regarding remaining 12 medical colleges will start by 21 May.

Deputy CM Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas, chief secretary Adityanath Das, DGP Gautam Sawang, COVID control room special officer K.S Jawahar Reddy, principal secretary (health) Anilkumar Singhal, principal secretary (transport) M.T Krishna Babu, and Aarogyasri CEO Dr. A. Mallikarjun were present at the review meeting.