Hyderabad: Telangana General Secretary Somesh Kumar has instructed all district collectors in the state to act COVID-19 vaccinations and tests in light of the increasing number of cases over the past week. At a video conference to review arrangements, he asked them to drastically increase and double the number of tests done daily to identify as many COVID-19 positive persons possible.
Kumar also urged district collectors to ensure that the rate of testing does not drop over weekends and holidays, and that all testing centers should operate on all days of the week. The general secretary also asked Collectors to ensure that the use of a new testing program for accurate contact detection of each positive person and the subsequent testing thereof is also done.
In accordance with ICMR Test Guideline version 6, dated 4 September 2020, the collectors were also asked to ensure that all symptomatic persons were found negative in Rapid Antigen tests to undergo RTPCR tests as well. Kumar emphasizes the importance of assessment and counseling on behalf of all COVID positive persons by doctors at the test site itself.
He also stressed the need to hand over a set of essential medicines to all persons suitable for isolation at home. Furthermore, persons in house isolation had to be monitored through home visits / telephone conversations, reads a press release from his office on Tuesday. Compilation of COVID vaccinations
Kumar also addressed collectors about the pace of COVID-19 vaccinations. With a view to vaccinating all persons over the age of 45, regardless of comorbidity, the Government Covid Vaccination Centers (GCVCs)
was opened up to the PHC level, which increased the number of GCVCs from 142 to more than a thousand, he said. The general secretary asked district collectors to ensure that people are made aware of the locations of the GCVCs.
Furthermore, he set the minimum performance measures for all GCVCs with a minimum of 100 for public health centers (PHC), 200 for area hospitals / community health centers and 300 for district hospitals / government hospitals to ensure daily vaccinations in GCVCs across the states exceed 1.25 l per day from the
current figure of 50,000.
Source: The Siasat Daily