Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday issued directions to extend the partial curfew till the end of May in view of the prevailing situation and to ensure speedier completion of the COVID-19 vaccination drive.
During a review meeting on COVID-19 at the camp office here on Monday, he said the curfew should be extended to a minimum of four weeks to contain the situation. It has been only 10 days since its imposition. The guidelines and timings will be the same (from 12 noon to 6 a.m) for the extended curfew. He told the officials to contain the spread of COVID-19 in rural areas and utilise the services of volunteers, Asha workers and secretariat staff effectively for the purpose.
He also directed the officials to conduct COVID tests for those identified with symptoms during the Fever Survey and to provide better medical facilities and medicines to the people who tested positive. Focus on developing infrastructure facilities in COVID Care Centres, he said.
Black Fungus
The officials informed the Chief Minister that there were chances of Black Fungus infection in diabetics and people who use excessive steroids and that they had identified nine Black Fungus cases across the State.
The Chief Minister directed the officials to bring Black Fungus under Aarogyasri scheme and prepare a protocol to identify the cases at an early stage and ensure treatment at some notified hospitals.
The officials informed the Chief Minister that there were 47,825 beds in 625 COVID care hospitals across the State, of which 38,492 were occupied. Of them, 6,576 were ICU beds, 23,463 non-ICU oxygen beds, 17,246 non-ICU and non-oxygen beds and 3,467 ventilator beds. They said 17,417 of the 52,471 beds in 115 COVID Care Centres were occupied.
Oxygen supply
The officials said 590 MT per day of oxygen had been allocated to the State and the demand, including government and private hospitals, was 590 to 610 MT. They had requested the Central government to allot an oxygen express with 80 MT capacity every day from Jamnagar and also urged the Karnataka government to supply at least 130 MT from Bellary. They said eight ISO containers had reached the State while another two were yet to come.
The officials said 7.32 lakh N-95 masks, 7.55 lakh PPE kits, 44.11 lakh surgical masks and 23,383 Remdesivir injections were available in the State while another 8 lakh injections were ordered from Mylan and 50,000 from Reddy’s Laboratories.
Deputy CM Alla Krishna Srinivas, Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das, DGP Goutam Sawang, COVID Command and Control Chairman K.S. Jawahar Reddy, Principal Secretary, Health Anil Kumar Singhal and COVID taskforce commitee chairman M.T. Krishna Babu were among those present.
