VIJAYAWADA: Health Minister Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas said that there is no report of the Coronavirus second wave in Andhra Pradesh, and the government is taking precautionary measures following guidelines of the Centre to prevent spread of Covid-19. He said that recently a woman arrived in the state from Britain and her samples were sent for tests. Results of the test are awaited, on whether she was carrying the new mutant strain of the virus.
Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Srinivas said that people should not be worried as no new Coronavirus strain cases has been found in the state. He said that mother and son had landed in Delhi from the United Kingdom on the night of December 21. They were tested for Covid-19 at the IGI International Airport and the mother was found to be positive. He said that she was kept in the isolation ward in the government hospital at Rajamahendravaram and her condition is normal.
He stated that her samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology laboratory in Pune for tests to confirm if she was carrying the new strain. The results would come in two days, Srinivas said.
In New Delhi, the Union health and family welfare ministry on Thursday denied reports that a woman from Vijayawada who had returned from the United Kingdom was found to have been detected with the new mutated strain of COVID-19 virus circulating in the UK. The MoHFW said that all such news reports about her being positive to the mutated virus are “false” and “genome sequencing of the lady’s samples are yet to be done.”
Minister Srinivas said that all basic amenities would be developed in the government hospitals in the state to provide good services to the people. The minister conducted a review meeting on Nadu-Nedu works in GGH Srikakulam, Victoria Government Hospital at Visakhapatnam, and the government hospitals at Guntur, Kadapa and Kurnool.
He directed the officials to start the tender process for civil works for the modernisation of government hospitals under Nadu-Nedu. Srinivas said that he will inspect government hospitals and medical colleges in Tirupati, Guntur, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam in the first week of January.
Minister Srinivas stressed on the need to provide facilities to medical students according to the number of seats in the institutions. He directed that facilities for patients be improved on par with state hospitals. Medical and health department chief secretary Anil Kumar Singhal, principals of government medical colleges, superintendents of government hospitals and other officials participated in the review meeting.
