ONGOLE: In the wake of COVID-19 threat, the State government has initiated several measures to prevent the spread of the pandemic. Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is monitoring the situation, and based on his directions, the Chief Secretary has been holding meetings with heads of various departments.
A State-level inter-department meeting on COVID-19 with secretaries of Health, Medical and Family Welfare (HMFW) and other departments was conducted under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary.
District collectors were appointed as nodal officers for control of COVID-19 in the district-level and the village/ward volunteers were asked to create a database of all foreign returnees.
Surveillance and containment
State and district level surveillance teams were formed to track foreign returnees, travellers from abroad and contact them. House-to-house active search to identify all foreign returnees is taken up in the State.
The health status of all foreign returnees will be monitored by PHC MOs for 28 days. All isolation wards are being maintained as per the protocols.
Isolation wards were established in 475 hospitals (449 private+26 public) with 1,236 (900 beds in private + 336 beds in public), 532 ventilators (445 in private + 87 in public) and 32 dedicated ambulances are available. Two quarantine facilities (Tirupati and Visakhapatnam) are identified.
Meanwhile, training for health staff at state and district-levels has been completed and training for staff of other departments started.
According to officials, 13,607 PPEs, and 99,283 N95 masks are now available in the State.
Further orders have been placed for 100 ventilators, equipment for the strengthening of the Virology lab in SMC Vijayawada and 200 cots and mattresses for quarantine facility in Vishakhapatnam.24X7 State and district level dedicated helplines for COVID-19 were established. As many as 573 calls were received till date. IEC is displayed at health facilities, public places, and Village/Ward Secretariats.
Cooperate with govt: HC
Stating that the State government was taking adequate steps for containing the spread of coronavirus, the AP High Court on Tuesday said it was the responsibility of every citizen to cooperate with the government and its initiatives to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The High Court made these observations while hearing a PIL filed by advocate, N Janardhan Rao, seeking court directions to the State to take effective steps to control the spread of coronavirus.
The Bench of Chief Justice JK Maheswari and Justice N Jayasurya said the steps taken by the government were satisfactory and said the onus also lies on the people to cooperate with the government.The government should continue with the steps to control, the Bench observed.
The Bench felt that the government should intensify publicity to create awareness among the people on the steps taken against coronavirus.