Andhra Pradesh CM Jagan to speed up vaccination to beat COVID third wave

Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh is preparing to effectively cope with Covid-19 third wave by giving priority to administering the second dose Corona vaccine across the state.

Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday directed the officials to be prepared to face Covid-19 third wave by completing 100 percent vaccination in the state. Addressing the Spandana review meeting with district collectors and SPs on Covid-19, vaccination, agriculture, mega housing programme and others on Tuesday, Jagan Mohan Reddy asked the officials to conduct Rythu Bharosa Chaitanya Yatra from July 9 to July 23, to create awareness among farmers on agriculture related aspects like RBKs, CMAPP, e-cropping and many more.

He said he would visit the village and ward secretariats twice a week after a decline in Covid cases and also start a programme where MLAs and officials visit a village and ward secretariat every day at the zonal level. He told the district collectors to visit both the village and ward secretariats on a weekly basis and directed joint collectors, municipal commissioners and ITDA POs to visit four village and ward secretariats per week to know the ground-level reality. He said that an additional 200 services would be provided to the people through village and ward secretariats, taking to a total of 740 services.

Interacting with the officials, Jagan Mohan Reddy directed the authorities to brace up for the possible third wave. Since studies showed that children would be affected in the third wave, officials were instructed to be prepared with a good action plan, especially considering the treatment for children and to complete all works in the next two months. He instructed the officials to check whether all required infrastructure was in place including special wards for children. He told the officials to check on the quality of ICU beds in teaching hospitals and provision of medical care to infants and ensure that oxygen beds were available at CHCs and area hospitals and avail the services of paediatricians.

The Chief Minister directed the officials to prepare an action plan at district level for the next two months and implement it. He told them to ensure all the medicines in the government hospitals met the standards of WHO and GMP. Also, he stressed on providing training to nurses in giving treatment to children.

Asserting that vaccination was the only solution to Covid, the Chief Minister ordered the officials not to deviate from the prescribed vaccination policy as still there was a long way to go in vaccination. He said the second dose should be prioritised, as everything would go in vain if the second dose was not given at the right time. So far, 1,28,84,201 people had been vaccinated, where 96,25,316 got single dose vaccination and 32,58,885 completed the two-dose vaccination. He told the officials to focus on other categories, after completing the 90 percent vaccination for those over 45 years.

It has been decided to give lands as an incentive to set up 16 private multi and super specialty hospitals in each district centre and each corporation, where Rs 100 crore should be invested over a period of three years in setting up a hospital. These private hospitals should be located in various cities and towns rather than in one place and get them empanelled with Aarogyasri, he added and instructed the collectors to identify land for the construction of these hospitals within a week.

Further, the Chief Minister emphasised on continuing the economic activity in those districts where the curfew relaxations were given. He said the poor would suffer a lot, if the economic activity did not progress.

The Chief Minister directed the district collectors to monitor all the notified hospitals to ensure that quality food, infrastructure, medicines and sanitation were in place and told to review these aspects at least once in every 15 days. He said steps should be taken to provide free medical care under YSR Aarogyasri and develop 104 call centre as a one stop solution for the public, where they could receive services within three hours.

The officials informed that currently 322 hospitals were offering Covid treatment, where 3,196 ICU beds were still available of the total 4,592 ICU beds. Similarly, of the total 19,258 oxygen beds, 15,309 beds are available. The Chief Minister directed the officials to equip all those hospitals with a CCTV network and monitor.