VIJAYAWADA: Covid-19 cases are increasing steadily in the State and for the past five days, the daily tally has been above 1,000 cases. However, there is nothing to panic about, the situation is manageable and the government is equipped to deal with the corona crisis, say officials of the Health Department.
They emphasise that what needs to be taken into account is not the total number of corona cases, but the total number of active cases and as on Friday, the total number of active cases and the recovered stand at 11,936 and 13,194. The existing medical infrastructure is more than sufficient to deal with the number of active corona cases. “The spurt in corona cases can only be attributed to the situation prevailing in the State after Unlock 1.0.
With transportation resumed and State borders opened for economic activity, the public movement has increased, so is the number of cases,” Health Commissioner K Bhaskar told TNIE. Reacting to the reports of delay in the results of tests performed, he said there is a slight delay due to the focus on clearing the backlog. As against the existing testing infrastructure, the piling up of cases in labs is nearly double, hence some delay.
“We are making efforts to clear the samples at the earliest and the testing facilities have already been ramped up to conduct 34,000 tests per day,” he said. He maintained that testing laboratories have been functioning full fledged with the staff striving hard to clear the samples at the earliest. Now and then the labs are closed for a short duration for fumigation and other cleansing activities, he reasoned. At present, the State has a capacity to deal with 40,000 corona cases in the hospitals itself and there are around 45,000 beds in Covid care and quarantine centres.
Hospital infrastructure strengthened to face worst case scenario: Officials
The State government is modifying its strategy according to the changing situation. It has ramped up the testing infrastructure from zero testing labs to 78, including 19 VRDLs and of which four are private labs, 47 TrueNat labs, five CB-NAAT labs, two NACO labs and five CLIA labs, with a testing capacity of 34,525 samples per day.
Further, the health officials have identified 76 quarantine centres across the State and converted them into Covid care centres, where asymptomatic and those with mild symptoms are treated and these are located at 15 minutes drive from the nearest Covid-19 hospital. The government is spending `13 crore for equipping the Covid care centres and quarantine facilities to offer the best possible care.
“Hospitalisation is only for moderate and critical care and the hospital infrastructure in the State has been strengthened keeping the worst case scenario in view,” the Health Commissioner said.
The government has even fixed prices for treatment of Covid-19 cases in the Aarogyasri network hospitals, so the pressure on the government health infrastructure is eased to some extent. In order to meet the shortage of manpower, doctors and other paramedical staff from private hospitals are being identified and pooled district wise.
“We have around 40,000 doctors and paramedics pooled in the State and whenever there is a requirement for additional hands, the authorities concerned in the districts can take the personnel from the pool to address the issue at hand,” Bhaskar explained. Describing the government efforts as most effective, Indian Medical Association Vijayawada president Dr PV Madhusudhana Sarma said compared to other States, testing and hospitalisation facilities are better in AP and awareness about the precautions need to be taken.
“The State has succeeded in keeping down the mortality rate,” he pointed out. The recovery rate in the State is also improving. While the mortality rate in the State is 1.14% as against the national average of 2.69%, recovery rate is 53.24%. “Today, we are in the initial stages of Stage 3 (community transmission) and the situation is still manageable. For this to happen, public cooperation is the most important,” he said.
Medical infrastructure