Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Minister Peddireddi Ramachandra Reddy, who is Krishna district in-charge Minister, has said that the highest number of COVID-19 tests were conducted in the district in the State.
After a review meeting on COVID-19 in the district on Tuesday, Mr. Ramachandra Reddy said as many as 18,616 tests were conducted so far. Of this, 14,866 turned negative. Results of 3,408 cases were awaited. While 342 positive cases were reported, 175 got treated and discharged from the hospitals. At present, 266 patients were undergoing treatment at the hospitals, he said.
The government has set up 34 quarantine centres in the district. Three centres with a capacity of 1,000 beds were being operated. In addition, a total of 8,000 beds were kept ready for the coronavirus patients. At the Government General Hospital in Vijayawada, 500 beds and 87 ventilators were kept ready. Also, at Pinnamaneni College 650 beds and 25 ventilators were available. The experts and doctors were available to treat the coronavirus patients, he said, adding, “10 beds should be kept ready for quarantine facility in every village and ward secretariat jurisdiction.”
The Minister said that the government has set a target of procuring 5 lakh metric tonnes of paddy in the district. So far, 2 lakh MT of paddy was purchased. By the end of June, remaining 3 lakh MT would be procured, he said.
Referring to mango, the Minister said that the farmer should be paid ₹7.50 per kg. The government would intervene If the market rate was below that. The government has created 20.65 lakh mandays to rural labourers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the district. As many as 1,85,141 labourers were involved in employment guarantee scheme works. The government paid ₹47.90 crore worth wages to them, he added.
Transport Minister Perni Venkataramaiah (Nani), Endowments Minister Velampalli Srinivasa Rao, MLAs Malladi Vishnu, Kaile Anil Kumar, District Collector Imtiaz Ahmed, Police Commissioner Dwarka Tirumala Rao, district SP Ravindra Babu and others were present.