Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has reiterated that one should always be on alert in dealing with COVID-19 and till the time the vaccine is released, one has to live with the pandemic and take precautions.

During the weekly review with Collectors, Superintendents of Police and senior officials - Spandana programme, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy asked the Collectors to ensure that testing was done at all Primary Health Centres, Community Health Centres, area hospitals, teaching hospitals and Government General Hospitals.

“I urge the Collectors to ensure that 104 helpline is working. It is the single point of contact for COVID-19 and the callers should be provided all help regarding testing, their doubts, admission in hospitals etc. If calls from 104 are routed to Collectors, they should respond immediately. It is also suggested that Collectors and Joint Collectors make mock calls to the helpline,’’ he said.

Test results

The results of tests – both RT-PCR and TrueNAT – should be made available within 24 hours. Testing equipment had been handed over to all the labs across the State, he said.

“I also instruct the Collectors to ensure that all primary and secondary contacts of COVID-19 positive persons should be home quarantined for 14 days. Those who have tested positive should be provided with a bed within 30 minutes. We have 224 COVID hospitals and all of them should have help desks. Collectors should regularly check on four points – quality food, sanitation, basic facilities and adequate medical staff,’’ said the Chief Minister.

Staff recruitment

Stating that the government had so far recruited 17,000 medical and paramedical staff, he said 11,000 nurses would be recruited on a temporary basis. He said COVID-19 kits should be provided to all those in home isolation.

The Chief Minister also said that the State had 26,250 beds with oxygen support and the target was to provide 31,589. He said that permission for plasma therapy had been given to many hospitals.