Asserting that the incidence of coronavirus was showing a declining trend for the last few days, Director of Public Health G. Srinivasa Rao said that several parameters, including case positivity and fatality rates as well as admissions into hospitals, were showing a downtrend.
Of the 71,221 persons tested on Thursday, 4,693 were found positive and there were 33 deaths. “New infections, death rate and case positivity rate are all coming down,” he said.
Speaking to reporters, Dr. Srinivasa Rao, accompanied by Director of Medical Education Ramesh Reddy, said that while night curfew was in force since April 20, lockdown with four-hour relaxation was imposed in the State from Wednesday to further contain the spread of the virus. People should take precautions while entering markets or standing in queues at liquor outlets by religiously following the COVID protocols.
“Lockdown has been imposed to save the lives of people. People who are following the restrictions for 20 hours a day should take adequate precautions during the relaxation time to ensure the virus does not spread,” he said, adding that emergency medical services including vaccination were continuing uninterrupted.
In this context, he said administering the second dose for those aged above 45 was in progress with 15 lakh people already taking the second dose. “Focus will be on administering the second dose to people who took the first dose till this month-end based on the availability of the vaccine,” he said. People opting for the second dose need not register themselves and they could walk into the nearby vaccine centres to get it. There was however, no need to rush to the vaccine centres as the second dose of Covishield should be administered between six to eight weeks and Covaxin between four to six weeks. “In view of the time available, people should approach vaccine centres in such a manner that there is no rush,” he said.
He expressed concern over reports of excess usage of oxygen and ‘unnecessary’ administration of drugs like Remdesivir. “There are effective alternatives to drugs like Remdesivir which could be utilised for treatment of patients. Doctors in private hospitals should understand that Remdesivir should be administered on specific indications. They should not misuse the drugs,” he said.
Teams of medical professionals constituted by the government were in constant touch with private institutions advising them to ensure rational and judicious use of oxygen and drugs. Of the 450 metric tonne oxygen allotted to the State, 320 MT were being consumed by the private hospitals. These hospitals were advised to make judicious use of the commodity.
There was also no cause of concern about the bed availability as close to 5,900 oxygen beds and over 2,700 ICU beds in different hospitals were vacant as on date. The government was constantly monitoring the use of drugs as well as oxygen on a daily basis and steps were afoot to set up more oxygen plants and procure more generators.
He allayed apprehensions about black fungus claiming that it had been occurring in case of patients with immune compromise under high dose of steroids. On the availability of ventilators, he said that the strength of ventilators had been augmented by 1,300 in the recent past, but a minor chunk of them were not functioning. It was therefore, contemplated to deploy teams with biomedical expertise to rectify the lapses and ensure that the equipment was available for patients without any delays.
