VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will request the Centre to reduce the interval between the second dose of the Covid vaccine and the precautionary dose to six months from the present nine months.
Reviewing the Covid situation in the State on Monday, the Chief Minister opined that reducing the gap between jabs would help frontline workers and others to arm themselves effectively against Covid-19, thus reducing their chances of hospitalization.
Pointing out that five districts were lagging behind others in administering the second Covid vaccine, he directed officials to pay attention to ensure all the districts completed administering the second dose at the earliest.
Nellore and West Godavari districts have achieved 100% administration of the first dose for adolescents aged 15 to 18.
Detailing the preparedness in handling Covid, officials said 53,184 hospital beds have been arranged across the State. Only 1,100 people out of the 27,000 active cases were hospitalized and only 600 required oxygen support, and those hospitalised were being discharged after seven days compared to the earlier 14.
‘Develop app to coordinate Covid services’
Urging officials to further strengthen the 104 call centre, Jagan asked them to initiate steps to ensure treatment through telemedicine.
Officials were also asked to publicise the Aarogyasri scheme by putting up outdoor publicity materials. The chief minister said village clinics should be the referral points for the scheme. Jagan also reviewed the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for patient referral system under Aarogyasri and the SOPs related to Arogya Mitras in network hospitals, village/ward secretariats, PHCs and medical officers for 104 and 108 services.
The chief minister also mooted the development of an app to coordinate all these services. Officials said the app would refer patients to the nearest network hospital. The Chief Minister instructed the officials to utilise Artificial Intelligence (AI) to make the system more efficient and transparent.