Telangana mandates authorisation for entry of Covid patients from other states

Hyderabad: The Telangana state government on Thursday made authorisation mandatory for the entry of Covid patents from other states.

Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar issued a memo in this regard, which was communicated to the chief secretaries of neighbouring states. The government invoked the provisions of Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 and Disaster Management Act, 2005 in support of its decision.

Referring to several people rushing to the city for hospitalisation without prior tie-up with any hospital, the Chief Secretary said such patients would not only lose precious time in moving from one hospital to another but also potentially spread the infection of different strains.

The Chief Secretary’s communique to the chief secretaries comes after the Telangana High Court described stopping ambulances at the state’s borders as inhuman and against the Constitution. The court gave clear direction to not stop ambulances at the borders.

The Chief Secretary, however, came up with a procedure according to which the hospital should apply in the prescribed format to the state government, giving details of the name of the patient, age, attendant name, mobile number and type of bed reserved and care required.

They should send these details to control room with phone number 040-24651119, Whatsapp to 9494438251 and email to idsp@telangana.gov.in.

On receiving the details, the control room will issue authorisation based on which the patient can come to Telangana state for hospitalisation. The Chief Secretary asked the neighbouring states’ administration to give wide publicity of the arrangement for the benefit of people.