Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy stressed the need for augmenting infrastructure in the healthcare sector to face contingencies like COVID-19.
He instructed the officials of Health, Medical and Family Welfare (HM&FW) Department to set up ‘village clinics’ for taking care of public health at the grassroot level.
As far as COVID-19 was concerned, he insisted that testing labs should be established in all districts to ensure that no suspected case was left out.
Addressing a review meeting on COVID-19 containment measures at his camp office on Saturday, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said since a few confirmed cases emerged in Srikakulam district, which did not have even a single case till April 23, a capable officer should be deputed there to prevent the disease from spreading further.
Officials told the CM that 6,928 tests were conducted on Friday alone and the total number of tests done since the outbreak reached 61,266. With 1,147 tests per million population, Andhra Pradesh stood first in the country.
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The CM instructed that telemedicine should be made a permanent project to reach out to the needy and that not only should prescriptions be made to the callers but also medicines have to be distributed to them.
He said industries and agricultural operations should be allowed as per the Central government guidelines so that the migrant workers and daily wagers would be able to eke out their livelihood.
Ministers Kali Krishna Srinivas (health), Botcha Satyanarayana (municipal administration) and K. Kanna Babu (agriculture), Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney and Special CS (HM&FW) K.S. Jawahar Reddy were present.
