NE NEWS SERVICE
AMARAVATI, APRIL 2
Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has elaborately briefed on the steps the State has been taking in fighting COVID-19 during the video conference the Prime Minister had with Chief Ministers here on Thursday.
The Chief Minister said that so far 132 cases have been recorded in the state and 111 among them are related to Tablighi Jamaat event; 91 are those attended the event and 20 have come in contact with them.
“We have identified 1085 persons who attended Nizamuďdin markaj and quarantined them” said.
He said that the cluster containment strategy is being implemented to have control over the situation and requested Modi to send the required equipment to the state as soon as possible.
From Feb 10, 2020 onwards 27,876 foreign returnees have entered the state. All of them are under observation and among these 10,540 are from urban areas and 17,336 from rural areas.
The Chief Minister explained the regular survey being conducted by volunteers, ANMs, Asha workers that is helping the health department in keen monitoring of the situation and in planning time to time strategy.
He said that 2012 non-ICU beds are ready in Vizag, Vijayawada, Nellore, and Tirupati. Moreover, special hospitals have been set up in 13 districts for COVID-19.
A total of 10,933 non-ICU beds, 622 ICU beds were set up in these hospitals. Apart from these other 20,000 beds are ready to accommodate in main cities and towns for isolation.
A total of 1000 ICU beds are ready in the state, Chief Minister informed the Prime Minister.
The ration has been provided to people along with an additional 1 kg of dal for free and the same will be repeated for another two times in April. Moreover, financial assistance of Rs 1,000 will be provided to the poor for their expenses.
About 218 camps have been set up to accommodate 9,695 members and among these 5,876 are from other states and 3,819 belong to AP.
The 50 percent salaries of employees have been postponed due to the financial burden on the state government, said Chief Minister and requested Modi to consider the state’s financial situation as the state expenditure was skyrocketed due to COVID-19.
State to get 2 more testing centers
Andhra Pradesh to get two more testing centers and adequate numer of PPEs will be supplied to the Covid hospitals.
Testing labs would come up one in Guntur and the other in Kadapa taking the total to six. At present AP has testing facilities in Vijayawada, Tirupati, Kakinada and Ananthapur. Work is in progress at Visakhapatnam for another centre.
The two new centers will function from April 3 and 4, State Nodal Officer Sr Arja Srikanth said.
With the growing number of cases more number samples can be tested.
Meanwhile, at a review meeting held here it was decided to supply 2500 PPEs (Personal Protection Equipment) to Covid hospitals. Discussions were held in a review meeting regarding the supply of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) to doctors who are working in hospitals. Health Department Special Principal Secretary KS Jawahar Reddy has inspected the equipment.
The samples of PPE masks have been trialed and 2500 PPEs will be supplied to COVID hospitals across the state. For the same, discussions were held with 90 GSM non-oven fabric suppliers for the manufacturing of PPEs. The government is keen on ensuring safety for doctors who are working during the tough times of pandemic, releases from CMO said.
