Harsh Vardhan appreciates Covid control measures of Telangana

Union Health Minister assured to provide complete support to the State in combating the pandemic

Hyderabad: Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Harsh Vardhan expressed satisfaction over the decline in Covid-19 cases in Telangana State and preventive measures being taken by the State government as well as treatment being provided to Covid-19 patients. He also assured to increase the quota of Corona-related supplies including oxygen, Remdesevir injections, vaccines, testing kits and ventilators required for the State.

In a video conference with Health Ministers and officials of seven States charied by the Union Health and Family Welfare Minister on Wednesday, Finance Minister T Harish Rao attended on behalf of Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao from Pragathi Bhavan. The Union Minister noted down the information provided by the State and assured to provide complete support to the State in combating the pandemic.

Speaking on the occasion, Harish Rao explained about the measures initiated by the Sate government to prevent the spread of Coronavirus and sought the Centre to immediately increase the supply of medicines and vaccines at the earliest. He stated that the State government has increased its medical infrastructure since first wave of Covid-19 pandemic last year. While the hospital beds have been increased from 18,232 last year to 53,775 this year. Similarly, the oxygen beds have been increased from 9,213 last year to 20,738 this year and the ICU beds have been increased by three times from 3,264 to 11,274.

The Minister explained about the door-to-door Covid fever survey taken up by the State government where about 27,039 teams comprising ANMs, Anganwadi and ASHA workers were visiting every household to conduct fever tests on the residents across the State. A Covid-19 medicine kit is being handed over to persons showing symptoms at free of cost, while awareness is also being created about the preventive measures as well as medication during home isolation in case of contracting the disease.

“This programme is yielding positive results. So far, fever tests have been conducted in about 60 lakh houses and symptomatic patients have been kept under home isolation. They have been kept under observation for timely intervention in case of emergency,” he added. He informed that the State government had imposed lockdown across the State commencing from Wednesday.

Further, Harish Rao had put forward several requests to the Centre on behalf of the State government as per instructions of Chief Minister Chandrashekhar Rao. The Minister pointed out that as Telangana State especially Hyderabad had become a medical hub, there is a huge influx of Covid-19 patients from the neighbouring States like Maharashtra, Karnataka and Hyderabad for treatment in addition to the local patients in Telangana.

“As a result, more positive cases are being reported in Telangana State and it has become a challenge for us to treat these patients in the absence of medical supplies including oxygen. Hence, we request you to provide additional quota of oxygen and other medicines based on the number of beds occupied in various hospitals to treat the patients from other States rather than population basis,” he urged.

Accordingly, Harish Rao sought the Union government to increase the oxygen allocation from 450 tonnes to 600 tonnes to the State. He also requested for supply of oxygen cryogenic tankers from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra rather than faraway places in Odisha, to reduce transportation problems. He urged the Union Minister to increase daily supplies to 20,000 of Remdesevir injections, 1,500 Tocilizumab vials and also two lakh testing kits.

As the State government was administering the second dosage of Covid-19 vaccines strictly and successfully, the Minister sought total 1.29 crore vaccines to fully vaccinate people above 45 years age. He informed that there was an urgent need for 13 lakh vaccines to cater to the needs till this month end. He also wanted immediate supply of 2,000 Ventilators, which are very much needed for the State.

CM Secretary and Special Officer from the CMO (Covid-19) Rajasekhar Reddy, Health Director Srinivas Rao, Director of Medical Education Ramesh Reddy, and Technical Advisor Gangadhar also participated.

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