No beds? Telangana cops turn away Covid-19 patients from Andhra Pradesh

HYDERABAD/VIJAYAWADA: Dozens of ambulances carrying Covid-19 patients from Andhra Pradesh to Hyderabad were turned away at three border check posts for not having advanced bed bookings in Telangana hospitals.
Patients and their attendants were shocked about the new rules being imposed by Telangana police at check posts in Krishna, Guntur and Kurnool.
“It has been observed that several Covid-19 patients are going to Hyderabad in ambulances without making prior arrangements for beds in hospitals. After reaching the city they keep travelling from one hospital to another in the ambulance searching for oxygen beds and ventilators with patients in critical condition. To avoid such situations, we are allowing only those who have arranged with a hospital in advance for treatment,” Jogulamba Gadwal DSP Ranjan Ratan Kumar told TOI.
On average, 200 coronavirus patients from different parts of Andhra Pradesh come to Telangana daily for treatment, and the numbers seem to have increased due to the lockdown in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
From Monday morning, Telangana police and health department and revenue officials started inspecting ambulances entering the state at various inter-state borders, especially the Andhra-Telangana border at Ramapuram in Kodad, and Pulloor toll plaza area in Jogulamba-Gadwal district where most of the vehicles coming from Rayalaseema districts enter Telangana.
Police in Kodad, Suryapet district, which shares a border with Andhra Pradesh’s Krishna district, and police at Hudnoor, Sangareddy district, close to Karnataka’s Bidar town, and Mancherial district police, who face a lot of traffic from Chandrapur area of Maharashtra, are also checking ambulances carrying Covid-19 patients and turning them back if the patients don’t have prior arrangements with local hospitals in Telangana.
While police officers privately said the health-department-initiated move was to stop the overflow of patients with a "virulent strain" of Covid-19 from entering Telangana, scientists at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) said there was a common strain in the twin states and the rest was rumour.
Repeated calls and text messages on this issue to chief secretary Somesh Kumar, who is directly supervising the health department, went unanswered.
Harried local police in Andhra Pradesh, meanwhile, got in touch with their Telangana counterparts to allow those who were on oxygen support and in critical condition to pass through.
Kurnool SP Kaginelli Fakeerappa spoke with Jogulamba Gadwal district SP R Ratan Kumar, requesting him to permit emergency patients into Telangana.
Some ambulances were later allowed to enter the state. However, at Garikapadu check post in Guntur, several ambulances carrying Covid-19 patients, including those on liquid oxygen support, were sent back after they failed to show bed confirmation proof.
An advisory was later issued citing the rules framed by Telangana authorities.