Praja Arogya Vedika (PAV) has appealed to Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy to strengthen the public healthcare system and work towards improvement of infrastructure in hospitals, procurement of medicines, continuation with the same doctors and healthcare workers, who were appointed to combat the pandemic in the past.
In a letter to the Chief Minister on Thursday, M.V. Ramanaiah, president and T. Kameswar Rao, general secretary, while appreciating the timely efforts of the government in tackling the pandemic during the first phase, noted that the new variants of the coronavirus were spreading rapidly in some States.
In order to combat the situation, the governments in those States were already strictly implementing the protocol of SMS — social distancing, mask-wearing and sanitisation of hands — and even announcing lockdown in some places.
The PAV representatives appealed to the Government of Andhra Pradesh to ensure strict implementation of the SMS protocol and to build confidence among the people of the State.
They also noted that while Coronil, a product of the Patanjali group, has been approved by the Central Ministry of Health for the treatment of COVID-19, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has raised objections over the approval given to the product. WHO had also confirmed that they neither reviewed the product nor approved or certified any traditional product for the treatment of COVID-19. The representatives appealed to the Chief Minister not to approve such products which are not proved scientifically in accordance with drug laws.