VIJAYAWADA: The State government has decided to extend the partial curfew imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19 till June 30. A decision to this effect was taken at a review meeting held by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday on the COVID-19 situation in the State.
The curfew will be relaxed from 6 am to 6 pm from June 21 and government offices will function as per regular timings instead of 8 am to 2 pm.
However, the curfew will be enforced in East Godavari as per the present relaxation timings of 6 am to 2 pm in view of the high positivity rate. Though curfew relaxation hours have been extended till 6 pm, all shops and business establishments should be closed by 5 pm.
Following a spurt in COVID cases, the government initially imposed night curfew from 10 pm to 5 am. From May 5, the curfew was extended to 18 hours with a relaxation from 6 am to 12 noon. Later, the curfew was extended till June 20 with a relaxation from 6 am to 2 pm.
Health officials informed the Chief Minister that Andhra Pradesh stands second in the country in curbing the spread of COVID and low mortality rate. At present, the State has a positivity rate of 5.99 per cent, a recovery rate of 95.53 per cent and a mortality rate of 0.66 per cent. Kurnool has the lowest positivity rate of 2.58 per cent, while East Godavari has recorded the highest positivity rate of 12.25 per cent, they explained.
The Chief Minister directed the officials to promote awareness about COVID Appropriate Behaviour among people and prevent crowding at market places during curfew relaxation hours to prevent the COVID spread.
The setting up of 350 MT capacity liquid medical oxygen plants should be expedited to enable the State achieve self-sufficiency in oxygen generation.
He said that cryogenic tanks to store oxygen should also be set up at hospitals, in addition to PSA oxygen plants and supply of D type cylinders. "The increase in generation and storage of oxygen will enable hospitals meet medical emergencies," Jagan said.
The officials informed him that 10 KL capacity oxygen tanks will be installed in every hospital with more than 100 beds. The State will get 10,000 D type oxygen cylinders by June 24, 20 more ISO tanks by July 5 and another 12,187 oxygen concentrators by July 15, they said.
The active caseload in the State has come down to 69,831 with the increase in recoveries. As many as 2,562 ICU beds, 13,738 oxygen beds and over 12,000 general beds are available in the State now.
As many as 2,584 black fungus cases have been reported in the State so far and out of the total, 185 patients have died and 966 recovered. At present 1,455 patients infected with black fungus are undergoing treatment in various hospitals, the officials said.
The Chief Minister directed the officials to be better prepared for a possible third wave of COVID. Deputy Chief Minister (Health) Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas, Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister Botcha Satyanarayana, DGP Gautam Sawang, COVID Command and Control Centre Chairman KS Jawahar Reddy, Principal Secretary (Health) Anil Kumar Singhal and other officials were present.
No change in timings in East Godavari
The curfew will be enforced in East Godavari as per the present relaxation timings of 6 am to 2 pm in view of the high positivity rate in the district