VIJAYAWADA: Curfew will be clamped in Andhra Pradesh from Saturday between 10 pm and 5 am. A decision to this effect was taken at a high-level review meeting on Covid-19 chaired by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday.
It was also decided to vaccinate people in the age group of 18 to 45 years from May 1 free of cost. A total of 2.04 crore people in the age group of 18 to 45 will be covered under the vaccination drive. The Chief Minister directed officials to get the required doses of Covid vaccine from the Centre.
Despite the sharp spike in Covid cases in the State, the Chief Minister is firm on conducting SSC, Intermediate, degree and engineering examinations as per schedule.“Students should not lose their precious academic year. Conduct the examinations as per schedule strictly adhering to Covid guidelines and ensure that students are not affected. There should not be any negligence on the part of officials in this regard,” Jagan said.
He emphasised the need for further strengthening the 104 call centre to curb the spread of virus in the State. Each and every call received by the call centre should be attended without fail. A joint collector will monitor the functioning of the call centre to win the people’s trust,” he said.
Taking stock of testing, availability of vaccine and medicines to treat Covid cases, he instructed the officials to set up care centres as required without any delay. At the same time, testing should be ramped up, he said.
Besides primary contacts, whoever wanted to get tested should be tested, he said, while underlining the need to bring down the fatality rate.The Chief Minister made it clear that private hospitals violating norms and collecting more fee than prescribed should not be spared. Stern action should be taken against such people or institutions and if needed raids should be intensified on such hospitals. The task should be entrusted to a senior official, he said.
Instructing the officials to streamline the production and distribution of medical oxygen in the State, he wanted them to review the availability of Remdesivir in the State. It should be ensured that Remdesivir is not sold in black market in the State. Further, he wanted Remdesivir being produced in the State to be used for meeting the needs of the State, while pointing out that if it was not the case, then chances of the closure of production units due to rise in cases is very much possible and the same should be explained to the Centre, he said.
The officials said lack of proper transportation is creating a problem in supply of oxygen to hospitals. Only 64 vehicles were allocated for oxygen transportation, while the requirement is 100 to 120. According to them, if all the hospital beds equipped with oxygen supply are filled, the State needs 515 MT of oxygen. At present, 284 MT of oxygen is being used in both government and private hospitals a day. They said the Centre was urged to allocate the entire production of oxygen in RINL-Vizag, which is 100 MT per day, to the State and also allow more oxygen supply from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
At present, 208 hospitals in the State have a total of 21,581 beds and of which 11,789 are occupied. In the last 24 hours, 2,506 people were admitted to hospitals, the officials informed the Chief Minister.
Effective steps to combat Covid
104 call centre to be further strengthened for better reach
Covid testing to be ramped up with focus on primary contacts
Private hospitals charging more than prescribed fee to treat Covid cases not to be spared
Availability of adequate stock of Remdesivir to be ensured
Black marketing of the drug to be curbed with an iron hand
Production and distribution of oxygen to be streamlined
Steps to be initiated to get allocation of more oxygen to Andhra Pradesh by the Centre
Chief Minister speaks to MDs of Hetero and Bharat Biotech