HYDERABAD: Telangana has been ranked 14 amongst 17 States in a survey conducted on the efficiency of the government in handling the Covid-19 second wave that caused havoc in April and May. The survey, conducted by social media platform Local- Circles, revealed that only 23 per cent of residents rate the Telangana government’s handling of the second Covid wave as effective. The survey received 2,403 responses from residents of Telangana and was conducted via the LocalCircles platform.
As per the findings of the survey, based on the availability of testing, containment, hospital beds, oxygen and medicine during the second wave, six per cent of citizens said the State’s handling was “very effective,” 17 per cent said it was “effective,” 32 per cent said it was “somewhat effective,” 28 per cent said it was a “total failure,” and 17 per cent said it was “ineffective.”
According to LocalCircles, the Telangana government had stopped issuing the daily Covid-19 bulletin citing a decline in cases. However, the state started to witness the daily cases of around 400 during March end and saw a 10,122 single-day spike on April 26. “As cases rose, there was chaos across the city’s hospitals facing acute shortages of ventilator beds, ICU beds, medicines, related supplies and equipment. At the time of distress, caregivers also became the victim of black-marketing,” said the survey. The government had set up laboratories for testing in 12 districts.
However, the awareness of testing and treatment remained low in rural areas since the beginning of the pandemic. Care centres in districts were mostly ill-equipped, while the government website did not date information on the availability of beds in urban areas. The rankings indicated that Telangana and Andhra Pradesh residents rated their States as top one and two in handling the second wave, while the ratings for Bihar and West Bengal were the lowest.