Lockdown helped to contain Covid spread: TS Health official

Health department Principal Secretary wanted the Health Department and other concerned departments to make joint efforts to implement lockdown strictly in the villages

Khammam: Lockdown imposed in the State has helped to contain the spread of Covid-19 and collective efforts were needed to arrest the spike in Covid positive cases in the district, suggested Health department Principal Secretary Syed Ali Murtuza Rizvi.

He wanted the Health Department and other concerned departments to make joint efforts to implement lockdown strictly in the villages to ensure that the rate of Covid positive cases comes down below five percent by June 9.

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Rizvi along with Director of Public Health and Family Welfare, G Srinivasa Rao and District Collector, RV Karnan inspected Madhira and Sathupalli towns in Khammam district and held meetings to review Covid situation.

The meeting was held in view of the high number of Covid positive cases in Madhira and Sathupalli mandals that were located on AP-Telangana borders. The officials reviewed measures taken at the village level to contain the Covid spread.

Speaking at the meetings the Principal Secretary said the Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao’s decision to impose lockdown and door-to-door fever survey yielded good results but there was a need to focus on border villages where the intensity of Covid positive cases was high.

Medical officers at PHCs should set targets in their limits and work collectively with ANMs, ASHAworkers, Gram Panchayat staff, Secretary and Sarpanch to address the issue. Those with Covid symptoms should be tested and given medical kits while shifting positive patients to isolation centres, Rizvi suggested.

Steps have to be taken to see that the public wear face masks and maintain social distance at paddy procurement centres and agriculture fields. Serious measures were required to prevent loss of life, he added.

Director of Public Health Srinivasa Rao said the department was striving hard to prevent Covid spread while saying that in the second wave villages turned vulnerable. He enquired about the reasons for the high number of positive cases in Singareni mandal where there were 786 active cases.

Collector Karnan said decentralised isolation centres were set up in villages where there were more than 10 Covid positive cases. Covid wards with Oxygen beds were set up at District Hospital and CHCs in the district.

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