Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday virtually inaugurated 144 Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) oxygen plants set up at various government hospitals in the State.
On the occasion, Mr. Jagan said the government had been taking all measures to contain Coronavirus ahead of the third wave, and as part of it, 144 oxygen plants had been installed in government hospitals at a cost of ₹426 crore.
“Besides establishing the oxygen plants, the government is providing a 30% subsidy to private hospitals with over 100-bed capacity for setting up oxygen plants,” the Chief Minister said.
He said steps had been taken to achieve self-sufficiency in oxygen, as the entire country faced severe shortage during the second wave.
Further, the Chief Minister mentioned that the government purchased 25 oxygen cryogenic ISO containers for transporting Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO), along with 74 LMO tanks. Oxygen pipelines were provided to 24,419 beds in various government hospitals at a cost of ₹90 crore, and paediatric care units with 20 beds were established at community health centres.
Mr. Jagan said 20 state-of-the-art VRDL labs were set up in the State, thereby increasing the testing capacity from zero to one lakh tests per day.
With the possible threat from the Omicron variant, a genome sequencing lab had been set up in Vijayawada, which was the second in the country, after Kerala.
As regards vaccination, Mr. Reddy said 80% of the people above 18 years had received two doses of the vaccine and 82% of the teens between 15 and 18 years were administered a single dose.
During the event, Mr. Reddy inspected 20 types of advanced medical equipment procured by the Medical and Health Department.
Deputy Chief Minister Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas, Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister Botsa Satyanarayana, Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma, Principal Secretary (Medical and Health) Anil Kumar Singhal, Secretary and others were present.