VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday directed the senior officials and district collectors to ensure effective audit of oxygen usage in each hospital in order to reduce wastage. Addressing the weekly ‘Spandana’ review meeting with district collectors, SPs and senior officials, the Chief Minister said ‘oxygen war rooms’ should function effectively to monitor the movement of vehicles and usage of cylinders at every hospital.
At present, the state is receiving a daily supply of 500 MTs of LMO. He said teams from Eastern Naval Command have been deployed to carry a thorough check of the equipment and pipelines in all major government hospitals and ensure better functioning in order to maintain appropriate pressure at the tail end to avoid leak and wastage.Taking stock of the vaccination drive in the state, the Chief Minister said as on Tuesday, 19,81,496 people have been vaccinated with both doses and 53,26,721 people with single doses.
“Due to the limited availability of vaccines from the Centre, the collectors and the health officials should restrict the vaccination drive only for those who received the first dose, in May. We have already taken a decision to use the vaccines purchased by the state to vaccinate the priority groups including healthcare workers, frontline workers and 45+ age groups,” he said.
Jagan reiterated that the state will take up the vaccination of the 18-44 years age group only after covering all 1,48,49,803 people in the priority groups with both doses. He further directed the collectors to ensure that there is no crowding at the vaccination centres. “There are 33,45,225 people over the age of 45 in the state who need the second dose. But we only get an average of 20 lakh vaccines a month. So we need to prioritise the people who received the first dose. There is a need for people to be aware of this and the collectors should make sure of it,” Jagan said. The Chief Minister explained that Bharat Biotech produces one crore vaccines a month, while Serum Institute of India produces a total of 6 crore vaccines per month. The country until today has received only 17 crore vaccine doses, while there are 26 crore people over 45 years that need to be covered.
“In our state, around 1.48 crore people are above 45 years of age. This includes frontline workers. Whereas, another 2 crore people are between 18 – 44 years. The state has received a total of 73 lakh doses so far. In other words, we require around seven crore doses to vaccinate the entire state,” he said. Taking exception to the criticism levelled by the Opposition and others, he said vaccine production and supply are in the hands of the Centre and the state has no say in the matter. He said the state government is currently focussed on ramping up tracing and testing more efficiently to contain the spread of Covid-19 and providing effective treatment to the patients who tested positive. The positivity rate currently stands at 7.47 per cent and has been on an increase for the last few weeks.
The Chief Minister directed the officials and the collectors to ramp up the testing capacity. He asked them to ensure no patient suffers due to the unavailability of beds. He suggested they set up fully air-conditioned ‘German Hangers’ with beds and other necessities in all districts. Medical and paramedical staff should be appointed for the same. As on today, 648 hospitals have been notified by the collectors for the treatment of Covid cases with a total of 47, 947 beds, out of which 41,315 beds are occupied.
Collectors and SPs were directed to ensure that there is no crowding even during the 6 am - 12pm relaxation in curfew. The police department should monitor Covid appropriate behaviour and at the same time see that normal economic activity is not hampered during relaxation hours. He reiterated the need to strengthen 104 service. He wanted the officials to ensure every call is attended and problems are resolved. Officials were advised to increase Covid Care Centres to treat mild and moderate cases. The Chief Minister has also directed the officials to see that 50 per cent of the beds in affiliated hospitals are allotted to Aarogyasri card holders.