VIJAYAWADA: There is a declining trend of coronavirus impact in the state, which is visible from various factors including positivity rate, recovery rate, bed availability, consumption of oxygen, and the number of calls to the Covid call centres.Briefing the media on Saturday, principal secretary (health) Anil Kumar Singhal attributed the reasons to various measures, including a partial curfew enforced by the state government from May 5 to contain the spread.
He said the positivity rate has come down to 17.29 per cent from over 20 per cent a few days ago, resulting in active caseload falling to 1,73,622 from 1,80,362. The number of ICU and oxygen beds available (as of Saturday) stood at 1,054 and 4,854 respectively, which was not the case in the last couple of weeks, he pointed out.
According to the official, the number of people undergoing treatment for Covid in hospitals came down to 29,973 on Saturday from 31,074 a day ago. Similarly, the number of people undergoing treatment in Covid care centres descended to 15,480 from 15,917 on Friday. From 1,33,371 on Friday, the number of people in home isolation also dropped to 1,28,169.
“Decreasing number of calls to ‘104’ call centres is another indication. Till 20-25 days ago, around 4,000 people sought hospitalisation every day. On Saturday, it was just 808. The total number of calls to the centres in last 24 hours was 5,500, out of which 2,552 callers sought Covid-related information, while 1,261 inquired about Covid tests, and 609 about test results,” he explained. Singhal said medical experts empanelled with ‘104’ call centres called 14,522 patients in home isolation to provide teleconsultation.
“If we look at the comparative figures of the past six weeks district-wise, we find a declining trend in all the districts. Even the oxygen consumption for Covid treatment has come down to 510 metric tonnes, while it was 640 metric tonnes 15 days ago,” he said. On May 24-25, 564 metric tonnes of oxygen were consumed, while the consumption was 551 MTs on May 25-26, 543 MTs on May 26-27 and 510 MTs on May 28-29, he added.
Black fungus
As of Friday, 808 black fungus cases had been reported across the state, but the number of injections and medication available was not sufficient. Singhal said though large quantities of medication were ordered, the drugs were not received as the allocation of the injection and Amphotericin B is controlled by the central government.
“We have placed an order for 76,550 injections with the Centre, but received only 5,250 as of Friday and another 2,475 today, which have been sent to the districts. In addition to the already placed order for Amphotericin B, we placed another order for 15,000 injections. An order for 12,250 Posaconazole injection which is also used for black fungus treatment was also placed with the Centre but only 500 of them were received by Friday, and another 750 today. Another order for 50,000 injections was placed. Further, we received only 15,000 Posaconazole tablets against the order for 90,000 and another 10,000 tables were received on Saturday. An order for 50,000 more tablets have been placed with the Centre,” he elaborated.
Vaccination
Singhal said in the last two days as many as 10 lakh Covid vaccine were administered. As of Friday evening, 5,21,210 doses of Covid vaccines (3,20,390 Covishield and 2,00,820 Covaxin), including those procured by the Centre, were available. Covaxin is being administered to second-time recipients, and Covishield for first-timers and the stock is expected to last till Sunday. “We are expecting 6.99 lakh doses from the Centre for the first fortnight of June. Only after they are received the vaccination drive can be rescheduled after Sunday,” he said. So far 94,74,745 vaccine doses have been administered in the state; 24,12,876 people have received both doses, and 46,48,993 others only the first dose.
Oxygen plants
Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) oxygen plants have also been made mandatory for all private hospitals, besides government hospitals with 50 beds and above, and an order to this effect had been issued. To ensure that the private hospitals set up the oxygen plants, incentives and subsidies are being worked out with industries, and modalites are likely to be drafted by next week.He said the vigilance department received complaints against 66 hospitals for overcharging patients, and fines were imposed on 43 erring hospitals so far.