The State government is fully geared up with medical, paramedical support staff, equipment and infrastructure besides mapping suspected COVID-19 cases in a ratio higher than the national level, according to I&PR Minister Perni Venkataramaiah (Nani).
Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy held a review meeting COVID-19 on Tuesday.
Disclosing the details, Mr. Nani and Special Chief Secretary Medical and Health K.S. Jawahar Reddy said of the 304 detected cases in the State, 280 were related to those who attended the event at Markaz.
Symptomatic survey
Mr. Jawahar Reddy said symptomatic survey was being conducted on people above 60 years, health workers, and high-risk patients. Medical officers have suggested conducting tests on 1,800 to 2,000 among them and that would be conducted on Wednesday. Moreover, 6,170 members identified in the fever survey conducted across the State have been kept in home isolation and treated. Containment strategy was being implemented at clusters where positive cases were reported. About 1,000 samples were collected from these clusters and there were chances some samples testing positive, he said.
On the lockdown, he said the State and the Centre would take a decision at an appropriate time. To check the infection level, the Health Department was conducting rapid tests. Order had been placed for 3 lakh rapid testing kits and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) was also likely to provide a few kits. The target is to conduct maximum number of tests every day to check the level of infection and the hotspots for accurate community-level surveillance, he said.
In a major relief, the ICMR approved the use of TruNat machines for COVID-19 tests. There are about 240 TruNat centres in the State which can conduct 3,000 tests per day. As of now, seven labs are functional and the number of tests per day has been increased from 90 in February to 1,170 tests per day now. Currently, 12,000 PPEs were available. Order was placed for 20,000 lakh PPEs and 30,000 PPEs will be delivered every week. Also, order was placed for 14 lakh N-95 masks besides 1,500 ventilators and 20,000 masks will be supplied every week.
Protecting frontline workers
Frontline workers have been given with prophylactic dose to secure them from infection. About 20 lakh tablets of hydroxychloroquine and 14 lakhs tablets of Azithromycin are available in the State.
About 640 specialist doctors, 792 house surgeons, 1152 nursing and paramedical staff were on the job at the four dedicated COVID-19 hospitals in the State. About 546 specialist doctors, 546 PGs, 273 house surgeons, and 546 nursing staff were deployed at the COVID hospitals in districts, he added.
