Minister for Health Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas has said that 37,000 beds are being readied for COVID-19 patients and 62 lakh people have been administered vaccine so far.
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There was no shortage of oxygen and Remdesivir injections, he told the media after taking stock of the situation in a meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) at the APIIC headquarters in Mangalagiri on Wednesday.
Mr. Srinivas said the State had 60 COVID Care Centre, where people with mild symptoms were being treated, while those in relatively serious conditions were admitted to hospitals.
The officials were ordered to ensure that there was no dearth of doctors, and patients did not suffer for want of medicines.
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Private hospitals were being permitted to increase the number of beds, subject to the fulfilment of certain criteria. As far as oxygen supply was concerned, Mr. Srinivas said the requirement last year was close to 240 tonnes per day. The Central government had recently allocated 420 tonnes to the State.
“The government is supplying Remdesivir injections to private hospitals, and has taken steps to curb their black marketing, he added.
Toll-free number
The Minister said patients were being taken to hospitals in ‘108’ ambulances to the extent possible and the problems being reported by the infected people were being solved through the call centres with the toll-free number 104.
He said that a committee had been constituted to inquire into the death of a one-and-a-half-year-old child on the King George Hospital (KGH) premises in Visakhapatnam on April 27. The child reportedly died of COVID while waiting for admission to the hospital.
Ministers Botcha Satyanarayana, Buggana Rajendranath Reddy, Mekathoti Sucharitha and Seediri Appala Raju, Government Advisor (Public Affairs) Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy and DGP D. Gautam Sawang were among those present in the meeting.