Anantapur and Kurnool districts registered 954 and 1,252 new COVID-19 positive cases, while eight persons each succumbed to the virus in both the districts during the last 24 hours ending 9 a.m. on Thursday.

The total number ofi deaths n Anantapur and Kurnool now stands at 105 and 187 respectively.

This sharp rise in cases for the past 10 days has prompted the district administrations to set up more COVID care centres and arrange for more beds with oxygen and ventilator support in hospitals.

‘Provide beds within 30 minutes’

Kurnool Collector G. Veerapandian has instructed the superintendents of all the designated COVID hospitals to admit the positive patients within 30 minutes of their request.

On Thursday, 47 patients were discharged in Kurnool district and 385 in Anantapur.

The tally in Anantapur has gone up to 13,312, with 7435 active cases, while the same for Kurnool stands at 15,723, with 7926 active cases.

In Anantapur, the Cancer Care Centre is being converted into a COVID care centre-cum-hospital. Collector Gandham Chandrudu and Joint Collector Attada Siri visited the centre to oversee the preparations. The Collector interacted with medical staff and patients at Hindupur Government Hospital on Thursday afternoon.

Some patients have reportedly died owing to the delay in admitting them to hospitals or COVID care centres last week.

Facility for non-COVID patients

Meanwhile, Ananthapur Urban MLA Anantha Venkatarami Reddy, who had visited the COVID19 wards in the GGH, has urged the district administration to pay more attention to the non-COVID19 patients and create a separate facility for them in view of the conversion of the GGH into a full-fledged COVID-19 hospital.

“The super speciality hospital, which is expected to function partially soon, can be exclusively set aside for non-COVID cases,” he said.

The MLA said it was time recruitment of doctors and paramedical staff be fast-tracked to deal with the issues pertaining to staff shortage in hospitals.