Strengthen COVID Helpline 104, YS Jagan To Officials

AMARAVATI: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy held a review meeting on prevailing COVID situation and vaccination and said to strengthen 104 helpline number and directed the officials to make the maximum number of mock calls to monitor its services.

During the review meeting held at the camp office here on Monday, the Chief Minister said to increase the availability of beds in districts with more covid cases. He said to provide oxygen and arrange all infrastructure facilities in the hospitals. He said there should be immediate response once a call is received to 104 helpline number and bed should be allotted to the required person and added that patients who don't require hospitalisation should be sent to covid care centres. 

He said there should be no negligence in operations of 104 helpline number and patients who call 104 should definitely receive assistance. He said German hanger tents should be set up in pre determined hospitals for immediate medical help and to avoid people waiting outside of the hospitals. He said Arogya Mitra should be available in every hospital and a number should be displayed in every hospital for complaining grievances.

He said Central Government will decide on the number of doses of Vaccine to be sold to states and the latter will buy the sanctioned quota by paying the money prior. He said despite knowing that the production of Vaccine and their availability are not in the control of the State Government, some vested politicians and a section of media are propagating false information on State Government in regard to Vaccination and creating tension and fear among the people of the state. He said it will take six months to complete the Vaccination process in the state provided that one crore vaccines are supplied per month. He said only 19 lakh doses of Vaccine on average are being supplied to the state per month and instructed the officials to think of going for global tenders on vaccine purchase. 

The officials briefed the Chief Minister that the state has received a total of 60,60,400 doses of covishield, of which 43,99,802 were administered under the first dose and 16,87,315 under the second dose totalling 60,87,117 doses. Similarly, the state received a total of 12,89,560 doses of covaxin, of which  9,23,296 doses were given under the first dose and 2,90,047 doses under the second dose. A total of 12,13,343 covaxin doses were given. To that extent, a total of  73,49,960 doses of covishield and covaxin are received of which 53,23,098 vaccines were administered under the first dose and 19,77,362 vaccines under the second dose. A total of 1,33,07,889 people over the age of 45 were registered, of whom 41,08,917 were given the first dose and 13,35,744 were given both doses. They said the Central Government said it would supply 9,17,850 doses of vaccine for the first 15 days of this month, of which 7,65,360 doses are given so far, with 1,52,490 doses yet to come. The state government was  allocated 16,85,630 doses for purchase by the central government of which  only 4,93,930 have been given and 11,91,700 vaccines are yet to come, officials said

He said there should be no rush at Vaccination centres and added that ANMs and Asha workers should be clearly informed on Vaccination details so that long queues can be avoided. He said to arrange chairs at Vaccination centres for the comfort of people. He said people should be informed that everyone would receive the vaccine free of cost by the government. He said to complete second dose of vaccine to people who are above 45 years and taken the first dose and later focus on administering the first dose of vaccine to people above 45 years as they are more vulnerable to COVID. The health professionals requested the Chief Minister to treat fever as a covid symptom and provide medication immediately and the later directed the officials to take necessary action in this regard.

The Chief Minister said Vaccination Programme is under the control of the Central Government and even if the state wants to buy vaccines directly from the manufacturing companies, the centre is instructing them on the number of doses to be sold to the states and added that the current situation on Vaccination needs to be explained to the people. He instructed the officials to take necessary action to set up PSA Oxygen plants in Community hospitals and Teaching hospitals and added to prepare an action plan in this regard. The officials informed the Chief Minister that there are  47,644 beds in 638 Covid hospitals, of which 39,271 beds are occupied. He said 24,645 people are being treated under Arogyasri Scheme while another 15,000 were in Covid care centres. There are  6,789 ICU beds of which 6317 beds are occupied.

The officials said there is on single hospital which is fully private, all are listed as either empanelled or temporary empanelled hospitals. The officials said there are 49,438 beds in  102 Covid care centres, of which 15,107 beds are occupied and about 1.5 lakh people are in home isolation. He said to curb black marketing of Remedviser injections and directed the officials to conduct an audit on their usage in government and private hospitals. He said to ensure patients are not robbed in the name of injections and they should be available to patients. 

He instructed the Director-General of Police to submit a report every day from every district on the implementation of Curfew and added that curfew should be implemented at a stipulated time across the state. He said Covid review committees should conduct meetings every Wednesday in the districts so that the problems at the ground level can be explained to officials by public representatives and added to analyse the feedback received in the meetings and address the problems immediately. The officials informed the Chief Minister that the government has approved for recruitment of 20,793 people for containing COVID of which  17,901 people are recruited. They said 3,500 MBBS final year students are being recruited on a temporary basis to provide better treatment to patients in Covid hospitals.

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, Covid task force committee chairman MT Krishna Babu, Health Commissioner Katamaneni Bhaskar, Health Secretary M Ravi Chandra, 104 call centre in-charge A babu, Arogyasri CEO Dr Mallikarjuna, APMSISC VC and MD Vijayarama Raju and other officials were present.

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