50-bed isolation ward for Covid-19 cases to come up in Andhra Pradesh's Prakasam soon

On the other hand, Transport department has issued orders to all private travel operators making it compulsory to maintain a passengers’ list with all their particulars.
Nurses in the newly set-up isolation ward at Vijayawada government general hospital. (Photo | Prasant Madugula, EPS)
Nurses in the newly set-up isolation ward at Vijayawada government general hospital. (Photo | Prasant Madugula, EPS)

ONGOLE: As the World Health Organisation (WHO) has termed Covid-19 a pandemic, the government of India has also issued directions to all States about its severity. Accordingly, the state government has issued orders to the district authorities to take all necessary precautionary measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in Prakasam.

District authorities are making arrangements to set up a Covid-19 special quarantine/isolation ward with 50 beds far away from Ongole city soon.  For this, the district authorities have already identified the buildings in Om Sri Gayatryviswakarma University and Old NIMRA Medical College and Maddipadu  Rural Health Centre.

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DMHO Dr K Padmavathi, Government General Hospital (RIMS) Superintendent Dr Sriramulu, along with Joint Collector-2 Narendra Prasad, visited the buildings and enquired about the facilities. Finally, they decided to start the Covid-19 quarantine/isolation ward on the private medical college premises.

Meanwhile, as per the Covid-19 emergency protocol, the district authorities had taken up the house-to-house survey to identify any person suffering from Covid-19 like symptoms and create an awareness among public about it.

The government has set a target of 10 lakh houses to be surveyed and up to Sunday around 80 per cent of the target houses have been surveyed and it will be completed by Monday. Later, the authorities are going to analyse the survey data.

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Dr Neerada, nodal officer for coronavirus, conducted a review meeting here on Sunday with the DMHO and other officials. The DMHO informed that out of the total 150 foreign returnees in the district, 135 persons have been traced and contacted by the medical and health staff so far.

The remaining foreign returnees will also be traced and contacted very soon. One round-the-clock surveillance cell was established in the DMHO office.

On the other hand, Transport department has issued orders to all private travel operators making it compulsory to maintain a passengers’ list with all their particulars.

“We directed all the travel operators to provide clean curtains, seat/pillow covers and blankets to the passengers and they must have the passengers’ list with full details,” said B Krishnaveni, Deputy Transport Commissioner.

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