Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has asserted that there is no scope for imposing lockdown in the State as it will lead to destabilisation of normal life and cripple the economy.
KCR cited previous experiences as well as the impact of the lockdown in different states which did not yield any fruitful results in reducing the COVID-19 surge before arriving at the decision against imposing lockdown in the State. Mr. Rao conducted a detailed review of the COVID situation in the State with senior officials of the Health and allied departments here on Thursday.
The review follows resumption of duties by the CM who had tested COVID positive on April 19 and had been in isolation at his farm house in Yerravelli in Medak district till he tested negative. The CM returned to Pragati Bhavan on Thursday evening and convened a meeting of senior officials to review the COVID situation.
In the process, he spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure adequate supply of oxygen and Remdesivir doses to the State. He told the PM that the oxygen supplies assured from Sriperambadur in Tamil Nadu and Bellari in Karnatakia were not reaching the State in time.
The influx of increasing number of patients from Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and other States into the city for COVID treatment imposed additional demand for medical resources and facilities in the city. As a result, there was pressure on the supply of key essentials like oxygen and Remdesivir to meet the demand. In spite of the ever increasing demand for oxygen, there was availability of 440 metric tonne of oxygen in the State while the Statereceived 4,900 doses of Remdesivir.
He wanted Mr Modi to ensure at least 500 metric tonne of oxygen and 25,000 doses of Remdesivir were supplied to the State. The Centre has supplied 50 lakh doses of the vaccine to the State so far, but the State would require at least 2.5 lakh doses on daily basis, he said urging the PM to ensure adequate supply of the vaccine to the State.
Following the request of KCR, Union Minister Piyush Goyal spoke to the CM and assured that steps would be initiated to meet the request at the earliest. Mr Goyal assured that steps would be taken to ensure adequate supply of Remdisivir to Telangana. In addition, instructions would be issued to Karnataka and Tamil Nadu for ensuring supply of oxygen to Telangana.
The CM’s request to the Centre follows the review of the existing situation in the State. Mr. Rao also enquired about the availability of oxygen equipped beds with senior officials besides speaking to the manufacturers of Remdisivir personally requesting them to augment supplies of the medicine to meet the requirements of the State.
The Chief Minister wanted the strength of oxygen equipped beds in the hospitals to be increased by 5,000 more in the next one week besides ensuring that quality oxygen was airlifted from China through 12 cryogenic tankers at a cost of ₹1 crore each. The government has set up 5,980 COVID outpatient centres across the State and the people should utiliSe the services of these centres.
