The spread of COVID-19 continues unabated in the rural areas in the district even as the number of confirmed cases crossed 50,000 mark. On Thursday, the number of confirmed cases stood at 53,752, while the number of active cases were 6,469. However, the spread of infection in the rural areas, where the medical facilities are poor, is worrying the district administration.
District Collector I. Samuel Ananda Kumar, who took stock of the situation, said that surge in cases in the rural areas was alarming. In fresh guidelines, the Collector said that if more than four confirmed cases were recorded in an area, it should be declared a containment zone. He also said that an aggressive containment strategy should be enforced where the number of confirmed cases were more. Employees of village secretariats should be used to conduct survey of primary and secondary contacts of the affected persons and home isolation marks should be put on their homes, he said.
Those who have been infected should be treated at community health centres and area hospitals before being shifted to hospitals. The work related to setting up of oxygen lines should be completed immediately at Community Health Centres.
Mr. Samuel also asked the Superintendent, GGH, to complete the process of recruitment of personnel in vacant posts.
Arogyasri
Taking serious view of some hospitals refusing patients under the Arogyasri, the Collector said that notices would be issued to those hospitals which refuse treatment and training should be provided to field-level staff on contact tracing and home isolation.
Joint Collectors A.S. Dinesh Kumar, P. Prasanthi and officers were present.