With the high positivity rate and lack of oxygen-supported beds in government and private hospitals, the authorities have undertaken the construction of a temporary hospital which will have 500 beds, all equipped with oxygen supply, in Tadipatri.
The positivity rate of coronavirus infection in Anantapur district went up to 41% on Friday from 37% on Thursday and it has been oscillating between 34% and 45% for the past two weeks. The cumulative positivity rate that was 2% in third week of April reached 5% on Friday. The district so far has tested 15.15 lakh samples of which 1.05 lakh tested positive, with a cumulative positivity rate of 6.95%.
Collector Gandham Chandrudu and Joint Collector Nishant Kumar, who is chairman of the Oxygen Monitoring Committee, inspected the construction activity at the site. The Arjas Steel will be laying an 800-meter pipeline to supply oxygen to the hospital from its plant. A similar temporary facility with 250 oxygen-supported beds will be set up next to the Super Speciality Hospital in Anantapur.
Oxygen supply
At present, in addition to the 15 KL of Liquid Medical Oxygen supply from JSW Steel Plant in Toranagallu in Karnataka, 850 cylinders can be filled at Life oxygen (250) at Chakrayapet and Vedic Ispat Limited at Thumkunta near Hindupur (500).