VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh government has extended the ongoing lockdown up to June 20 with two more hours relaxation up to 2 pm from 6 am in a day to curb spread of Coronavirus in a more effective manner in the state.
At a high-level meeting with health minister Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas and top officials, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has taken a decision to extend the lockdown up to June 20 as the existing period will be over by June 10. The Chief Minister has also ordered for extension of curfew relaxation time from 6.00 am to 2.00 pm unlike earlier practice of up to 12.00 noon to facilitate economic activity for two more hours and has also directed the authorities to allow working of public/private offices from 8.00 am to 2.00 pm in a day. With this, the curfew period will remain operational from 2.00 pm to 6.00 am of the next day imposing curbs on movement of general public and other activities in the state.
Even as curfew relaxation timings are extended up to eight hours in a day, the Chief Minister cautioned, “Even though the number of daily Coronavirus infections are dipping, we should be on high alert all the time until the Covid-19 positivity rate comes down further and the Covid-19 situation comes under control. The entire administration should maintain all precautionary measures and no slackness to be allowed to creep in.”
Meanwhile, the officials briefed the Chief Minister about the impending third wave of the Coronavirus pandemic especially targeting the children in the state and also about the expected number of children to be affected. The officials wanted the ongoing nutrition and routine immunisation programmes to be continued for the kids and also explained about the medicines, medical equipment and other requirements to be prepared to face the third wave of the pandemic.
Jagan Mohan Reddy directed the officials to bring about awareness among parents on severity and impact of the third wave on children and also to train the Asha and health workers to identify the paediatric symptoms of the infection to provide timely healthcare. He instructed the officials to set up paediatric wards in all teaching hospitals in compliance with national standards to provide the best medical treatment to the infected kids and also to provide health care at PHCs and area hospitals based on feasibility.
He also directed the officials to procure quality medicines in advance and recruit doctors for providing healthcare to the kids. He asked for identification of hospitals to treat the infected kids and empanel them and also to identify private teaching hospitals and get them ready for it in addition to keeping a tab on setting up oxygen generation plants hospital-wise.
Jagan Mohan Reddy instructed the health officials to set up three paediatric care centres at Visakhapatnam, Krishna-Guntur area and also at Tirupati and asked them to come up with estimates at nearly Rs 180 crore for each centre.
The Chief Minister was briefed about the gradual dip in daily Covid-19 cases in the state by the officials. They informed him that the Covid-19 positivity rate was down to 10.73% from 25.56% reported on May 16 and active cases to 1.23 lakh from 2.11 on May 17 while recovery rate touched 92.33%. The officials said that out of 1,551 black fungus cases registered in the state, 99 infected patients succumbed to the virus while the remaining are undergoing treatment in the hospitals in the state.
