State to have 97 oxygen plants by September

VIJAYAWADA: The state government is establishing 134 oxygen generation plants of which 97 plants would be ready by September and the rest by March.

At a review meeting on Covid-19 and vaccination at Tadepalli on Friday, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy insisted that only medicines with GMP and WHO standards should be used in government and ESI hospitals to ensure quality services.

He also urged officials to prepare standard operating protocols on government hospitals and medical equipment management. Officials stated that the number of Covid cases has come down while the recovery rate has increased significantly.

As far as oxygen plants are concerned, officials stated that the government is setting up 134 oxygen generation (PSA) plants across the state, with focus on having generation plants in hospitals with more than 50 beds.

Jagan Mohan Reddy said that special attention should be paid to sanitation in hospitals and food provided to patients along with hospital maintenance and medical infrastructure by way of regular monitoring. He said that a special officer must be appointed to see that all hospitals have access to infrastructure, proper sanitation, and to monitor attendance of doctors, nurses, and other staff.

On the Nadu-Nedu initiative in hospitals and health hubs, he said that maintenance should be prioritised in all the works that were taken under the initiative and ensure that patients receive quality services. He said that all Aarogyasri, 104 and 108 bills must be cleared within 21 days. With regard to health-hubs, officials said that more people were going to other states for cancer, heart disease and pediatric surgeries. The Chief Minister directed the authorities to ensure that medical services for these ailments are available in the state, prioritising the establishment of such specialty hospitals in the hubs.

The Chief Minister said that construction of 16 new medical colleges, revamping the existing 11 medical colleges and bringing up health hubs will strengthen the health sector in the State. He told the authorities to identify places for setting up health hubs closer to localities, as that would attract investments.

The officials informed that the number of Covid active cases have come down to below 50,000 with only 5.23 per cent of positivity rate. In six districts, it is even less than five percent and has a recovery rate of 96.67 per cent, which is higher than the national average. The officials informed that 76.51 per cent of beds in private hospitals are occupied by patients under Aarogyasri and the number of calls to 104 dropped significantly with just 1,021 calls on June 25.

With regard to black fungus, officials said that there are about 3,148 such cases. Surgeries were performed on 1,095 persons and 1,398 have been discharged. About 237 people have succumbed to black fungus, they said.

Deputy chief minister Alla Krishna Srinivas, chief secretary Adityanath Das, DGP Goutam Sawang, Covid command control chairman Dr KS Jawahar Reddy, health principal secretary Anil Kumar Singhal, health secretary M Ravi Chandra, health commissioner Katamaneni Bhaskar, 104 call centre in-charge A Babu, VC and MD of APMSIDC  Vijayarama Raju and other officials were present.