Night curfew in Andhra Pradesh from today

VIJAYAWADA: Entire Andhra Pradesh will come under night curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. from Saturday in a bid to curb the spread of Coronavirus in the state.

This was announced after Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy reviewed the Covid-19 situation in AP at an emergency meeting held at the CM’s camp office in Tadepalli on Friday evening.

The CM further declared that the state government will administer Corona vaccine free of cost to all people aged 18 years and above in each of the 13 districts of AP.

Jagan Mohan Reddy directed officials to accordingly place orders with manufacturers for vaccines. As per an estimate, in all, 2,04,70,364 people across the state will have to be vaccinated.

All shops, restaurants and public spaces will remain closed during the curfew period. Further, to prevent crowds, rythu bazaars will be decentralised and commodities made available at the ward level.

The Chief Minister told officials to focus on uninterrupted supply of oxygen and Remdesivir vials while ensuring that they are not black marketed. He said he has received complaints about hospitals overcharging patients for Covid treatment. He underlined that strict action must be taken against such practices.

Jagan Mohan Reddy asked officials to conduct class X, inter, degree and engineering examinations as per the schedule without causing any inconvenience to students. Those tests should be conducted in total compliance with Covid guidelines to ensure the wellbeing of each student.

Officials present at the meeting informed the CM that there is a delay in supply of oxygen due to insufficient number of vehicles. Only 64 of them are available whereas at least 100–120 vehicles will be required to meet the current demand. Officials pointed out that 515 metric tonnes of oxygen is the requirement once all oxygen beds in the state are occupied. Currently, 284 metric tonnes of oxygen is being used on an average in government and private hospitals.

In this regard, officials said they have requested the central government to supply 100 metric tonnes of oxygen to the state from RINL, Vizag; apart from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

A total of 21,581 beds are available in 208 Covid hospitals of the state. Of these, 11,789 beds are occupied. 2,506 people have been admitted to the hospitals during the last 24 hours, officials stated.

Deputy chief minister Alla Krishna Srinivas, ministers Botsa Satyanarayana, Kurasala Kannababu and Mekathoti Sucharitha, DGP Goutam Sawang, COVID Command Control special officer K. S. Jawahar Reddy, principal secretary (Health) Anil Kumar Singhal, special chief secretary (Higher Education) Satish Chandra, principal secretary (Transport) M. T. Krishna Babu, principal secretary (School Education) Buditi Rajashekar, health commissioner Katamaneni Bhaskar and other officials were present at the meeting.

The Chief Minister earlier spoke to Bharat Biotech MD Krishna Ella and Hetero Drugs MD B. Parthasarathi Reddy over phone. He sought supply of Covid vaccine doses and Remdesivir injections from them as per requirement of the state.