People in Anantapur district woke up to a sudden spurt in the number of the COVID cases, which more than tripled to 849 on Wednesday from 275 on Tuesday.
The district administration issued show-cause notices to people responsible for the inordinate delay in the data-entry process for the COVID samples collected at the Government General Hospital and appointed Assistant Collector Mallavarapu Surya Teja in charge of COVID-related services on the GGH premises.
Joint Collector (VS&WS) A. Siri at a press conference here on Wednesday said that there was no need for panicking and that the district medical and health department had readied 1,900 beds, including 161 beds with ventilator support, in six government hospitals and 12 private hospitals. For grievances, people can call 104.
“Every one must exercise restraint and not panic even if they have symptoms. One should quarantine themselves at home in the best interests of their family members and the society at large,” Dr. Siri said.
Five COVID Care Centres at JNTU--Anantapur (200 beds), Balayogi Gurukulam at Lepakshi (250), Narayana Junior College in Somuladoddi (200), Government Polytechnic College in Dharmavaram(250) and A.P. Model School at Kalyandurg (200)--were made operational, she said and efforts were on to activate 5,000 beds in the next few days.
Out of the 2,948 active cases in the district, 2,399 patients were in the home isolation while 60 were in ICU and 325 in non-ICU and 164 in general beds, she added.
All private hospitals with more than 20 beds in the Aarogya Sri network in the district were being contacted and ascertained if they were prepared to treat COVID patients to ramp up the bed strength to 4,000. Remedesivir and oxygen were being keenly monitored by a nodal officer.
