No oxygen shortage in Telangana: DME Ramesh Reddy

HYDERABAD: Nearly 100 ventilators will soon be repaired and deployed for use, said Director of Medical Education Dr K Ramesh Reddy at a press meet on Thursday. He said that the ventilators had been faulty and that the vendors who supplied the same failed to repair them. “We have floated tenders for the maintenance of the ventilators because the companies that supplied them have failed to repair them in time,” said Dr Reddy. 

“The State has no oxygen shortage. We have constituted hospital-level and State-level teams to monitor any issues. A majority of the hospitals which have more beds have Liquid Medical Oxygen Tanks which send out alerts when emptying out, ensuring no untoward incident occurs. We also have several oxygen concentrators used in triage,” he said.

Stressing on the availability of medicines, Director of Public Health Dr G Srinivas Rao said, “Remdesivir has been made available in several hospitals, both government and private, and the supply is directly given to them. It must be selectively used. Several other life-saving drugs have alternatives which are available in the market and we are sensitising doctors to use the same.”

On the issue of the Black Fungus, the officials said that there was no reason to panic and that there was very little chance that the fungus would affect all. He said the supply of drugs like Amphotericin B will be regulated and monitored by a special task force committee under the aegis of IT Minister KT Rama Rao.