The State government has reached out to the IT industry leaders with a suggestion if the sector can make some big ticket contributions under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and one or two day salary contribution by the IT sector workforce - to purchase high-end Covid testing and medical diagnostic equipment for government hospitals.
IT department officials on behalf of the government made this proposal while acknowledging the charity extended by the IT/ITES sector to provide food to the needy and poor daily wagers affected by the lockdown in the State to curb the transmission of COVID-19.
The Health department apparently sought the help of Information Technology & Communications department in raising CSR and individual contributions to acquire high-end diagnostic equipment like CT scan, MRI, rapid testing machines for covid confirmation. The department now apparently has enough masks and Personal Protection Equipment and more orders were also placed for delivery. “Thus it is now looking for high-end equipment. Even a rapid high volume COVID-19 testing machine is on the wish list of Medical and Health department,” said Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, IT and Industries.
Mr. Ranjan had an online meeting with representatives of Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association (HYSEA), NASSCOM and others to understand their concerns in the wake of lockdown and explain them about the preparedness of government in tackling spread of COVID-19 on Monday.
The high volume rapid testing machines like cobas SARS-CoV-2 will enable expedited COVID-19 testing and it could test 5,000 samples in one go and give results in five hours. In about 20 hours, it could give 20,000 sample tests. Mr Ranjan said that the suggestion got a positive response.
In the State there are six testing centres that test 1,500 samples, apart from CCMB that can do rapid testing. A local manufacturer is also permitted by ICMR to make 1,000 to 1,500 Covid medical kits per day, he said.
No Swiggy, Zomato
Mr Ranjan made it clear that food delivery companies like Swiggy and Zomato would not be permitted to deliver during lockdown but IT companies can run their own canteens and supply food to 5% of employees working from offices and also supply food to those IT employees living in hostels.
He said the IT companies by and large managed to make bulk of their employees work from home. Some bandwidth and power outage issues in some localities raised by them are being addressed, he said.