VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has directed officials to encourage plasma donation and provide Rs 5,000 as an incentive to donors so they can get nutritious food.
He said that efforts are on to reopen schools from September 5, Teachers' Day, and hoped that by then things would return to normal. He told the officials concerned to give masks to students along with school kits under Vidya Kanuka, and raise awareness on the importance of masks and how to use them.
Jagan also stressed the need for micro-management of the 138 COVID hospitals in the state, and said the government is taking steps to be transparent in the availability of beds and care offered to infectees.
Officials were told to prepare Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to improve medical facilities and provide details on the number of beds and availability of help desks at the hospitals identified for COVID-19 treatment in every district.
The Chief Minister said that all details should be displayed at the hospitals on black boards, and wherever possible, in a digitised format. He also directed the officials to monitor the medicines, treatment, food and hygiene provided at all COVID hospitals in the state.
Besides ensuring that emergency medicines are available at all hospitals, the officials were told to raise awareness on COVID-19 to remove the stigma associated with the disease. Jagan also directed them to monitor the news on COVID-19, and resolve genuine issues.
The officials said the 138 COVID hospitals have 36,778 beds, and of the 70,446 active cases, 14,042 are in hospitals, 18,753 in COVID Care Centres, and 35,660 in home isolation. As many as 3,541 patients are being given oxygen or are on ventilators, and 28,911 beds with oxygen supply are ready for use, they added.
The officials said patients who have had fever and respiratory problems for two or three days will be admitted to hospitals regardless of their coronavirus test results.Later, when reviewing the development of basic infrastructure in government hospitals under the ‘Nadu-Nedu’ programme, Jagan stressed that only when the public healthcare system is robust will the state be able to face a crisis such as the COVID-19 outbreak.
Taking stock of the progress of YSR Village Health Clinics, he told the officials to finish constructing the proposed new medical colleges within three years.The officials said that for building new medical colleges and improving the infrastructure in the existing ones, tenders will be called for in August, September and October. They were asked to identify sites for the new medical colleges at the earliest.
Health Minister Alla Nani, Special Chief Secretary (Health) KS Jawahar Reddy and other officials attended the meeting.
Later, the Health department in a press release said the occupancy rate on Friday stood at 45.48 per cent. Before theCOVID-19 outbreak 3,286 oxygen connections were available, and on June 3, as many as 11,364 were sanctioned, of which 10,425 were installed.
On July 29, another 7,187 oxygen connections were sanctioned. The department set itself a target of having 17,827 in government hospitals and 11,084 in private hospitals, it said.