HYDERABAD: Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar on Tuesday directed the District Collectors to ramp up Covid-19 vaccine drive and administer over 1.25 lakh jabs per day. During a video conference, the Chief Secretary also asked the Collectors to double the number of tests being done on a daily basis in order to cast the net wider and identify as many Covid-19 positive persons as possible.
The review took place after the High Court asked the government to submit a report within 48 hours on the measures being taken to combat the pandemic.The Chief Secretary stated that increasing the numbers would help in early identification and isolation of positive cases, which in turn would help in controlling the spread of disease.
Early identification would also enable early start of treatment, which would reduce the probability of cases becoming serious.The Collectors were also asked to ensure that the pace of testing does not come down on weekends and holidays, and that all testing centres must work on all days of the week. The Chief Secretary also asked the Collectors to ensure use of new testing app for meticulous contact tracing of every positive person and their subsequent testing. In line with ICMR’s testing guidelines, the Collectors have been asked to ensure that all symptomatic persons found negative after rapid antigen tests are also subjected to RT-PCR tests.
The Chief Secretary stressed the importance of on-the-spot assessment and counselling of all Covid-19 positive persons by doctors at the testing location itself. He also emphasised the need to hand over a kit of essential medicines to all persons found fit for home isolation.
He asked the Collectors to ensure vaccination of all persons above the age of 45 years irrespective of comorbidities. He said that Government Covid Vaccination Centres (GCVCs) have been opened even at the PHC level, increasing the number of GCVCs from 142 to over 1,000. He asked the Collectors to ensure that people were made aware of the locations of the GCVCs. He also fixed performance benchmarks for all GCVCs with a minimum of 100 vaccinations for PHCs, 200 for Area Hospitals/Community Health Centres and 300 for District Hospitals/Government General Hospitals.
Somesh tests +ve
Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday and is now under home quarantine. Though he tested positive, he held a video conference with the District Collectors on measures to be taken to combat the pandemic.