Gandhi hospital adds 160 beds for COVID patients; 53,002 more households surveyed for fever

Hyderabad: So far 1,82,924 households have been surveyed in Greater Hyderabad as part of the state government's directives on COVID-19 control. The survey, which began on Monday, was being conducted daily by teams from the GHMC and medical health departments who checked for people with fever and other COVID-19 symptoms in their homes. Each team consisted of an ANM, an Asha worker, and a GHMC worker.

These teams were collecting information about people found with the COVID-19 symptoms and were monitoring their health condition through follow-ups. They were also assisted by the services from GHMC workers who sprayed anti-larvae solution in areas where fever cases were high.

According to reports, on Friday, 720 teams surveyed 53,002 households in the city. So far, 18,772 people have been tested for fever in various hospitals in the city. The government has directed that COVID-19 outpatient tests be administrated at every basti dispensary, urban health centre and other units. The records also show that doctors provided COVID-19 related advice and instructions to 140 people through the GHMC call centre.

Gandhi hospital adds 160 beds for COVID patients

Meanwhile, on Friday, chief secretary Somesh Kumar IAS visited the Gandhi Hospital where he inspected a new ward made for COVID-19 patients in the library building with 160 additional beds. He also inspected the new oxygen generation plant which was started on Friday and is said to produce 4 MT of oxygen per day and can cater to around 400 patients.

Later, the chief secretary interacted with the doctors and staff and thanked them for their service in these testing times. Somesh Kumar inspected the work being done on upgrading cleaning, sanitation, street lighting, oxygen pipeline facilities to the patients and directed the officials to finish them as soon as possible.

Earlier in the day, the chief secretary also directed all the transport officials concerned to co-ordinate and ensure uninterrupted and speedy transportation of medical oxygen tankers to hospitals, health care units and other necessary places.

During the meeting, held at the BRKR Bhavan, the RTC officials were told to form teams with experts in logistics to transport oxygen tankers in the shortest possible time to and from Angur in Odisha and Bellari in Karnataka.

Somesh Kumar directed the transport officials to work with railway officers and create a green channel to minimize the travelling time of Oxygen Express to three days from six days. He also directed officials to have police, mechanics and other experts accompany the tankers. He suggested officials to modify the tankers so that they can be easily airlifted in cargo aircraft.

He directed transport officials to form teams with drivers and mechanics to ply tankers around the clock to designated points. He also asked them to pool up additional tankers from private contractors and add to the present 30 fleet of tankers transporting oxygen.