The State government has requested the Centre to enhance supply of vaccine doses, Remdesivir injections, oxygen and other essentials required for treating the Coronavirus (COVID-19) patients.
The government asked the Centre to consider enhancement of supply of medical essentials in view of the increasing number of patients arriving in the State from other States for Covid-19 treatment rather than making allocation on the basis of population.
Finance Minister T. Harish Rao explained to Union Home Minister Harshvardhan that the shortfall of medicine and other essentials in the State was on account of people coming for treatment to Hyderabad, which is reputed as medical capital of the country, for the quality medicare available here.
The Minister made the requests during a video conference conducted by the Union Minister with States to enquire about the COVID-19 situation and the remedial measures launched by the respective governments.
Mr. Harish Rao attended the video conference on the instructions of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
Mr. Harish Rao said there was variation in the number of actual people infected and those undergoing treatment in the hospitals as people from Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and other States are preferring treatment in Hyderabad. This is in turn imposing burden on the State in terms of the medical requirements.
Keeping the increasing rush to the State, the Centre should increase the quota of oxygen from 450 metric tonne to 600 metric tonne as also the doses of Remdesivir and Tocilizumab injections. Steps should be taken to move oxygen using cryogenic tankers from the nearby States as transport from far off places like Odisha is taking time, he said.
Since the Chief Minister had also spoken to the Union Government, steps should be initiated to enhance supply of Remdesivir doses to at least 20,000 a day and the number of testing kits should be increased to 2 lakh daily. He explained that the State would require 1.29 crore doses of vaccine for vaccinating all the people above 45 years and the requirement this month alone is to the tune of 13 lakh doses. The State would also require 2,000 ventilators and the Centre should take steps to ensure immediate supply of the required material, he said.
Mr. Harish Rao explained that the State government is conducting door to door fever survey to identify people with symptoms of COVID-19 and home treatment kits are being provided to those identified with positive symptoms. This is aimed at ensuring timely treatment and avoiding rush at the hospitals, he said.
The Chief Minister initiated several proactive steps after the first wave to strengthen the medical infrastructure in the State. As a result, bed strength had been increased from 18,232 to 53,775, oxygen beds increased from 9,213 to 20,738 and ICU beds from 3,264 to 11,274 so far. This marked a three-fold increase in the available basic infrastructure.
The Union Minister expressed satisfaction at the arrangements made in Telangana for effective containment of the virus. He said the Centre had noted down the requirements of the State and steps would be taken for supply of the required essentials with immediate effect.