Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has stressed the need for augmenting infrastructure in the healthcare sector to face contingencies such as COVID-19.
Village clinics
He has instructed the officials of the Health, Medical and Family Welfare (HM&FW) Department to set up ‘village clinics’ for taking care of public health at the grass-roots level.
As far as COVID-19 is concerned, he has insisted that testing labs be established in all the districts to ensure that no suspected case is left out.
Addressing a review meeting on the containment measures at his camp office on Saturday, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy, referring to the emergence of a few confirmed cases in Srikakulam district, which did not have even a single case till April 23, directed that a senior officer be deputed to that district to prevent the disease from spreading further.
The officials told the Chief Minister 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, they said.
The Chief Minister instructed the officials to make telemedicine a permanent project with a view to reaching out to the needy. “Besides giving prescriptions to the callers, medicines have to be delivered to them,” he added.
The Chief Minister said that industries and agricultural operations should be allowed as per the Central government guidelines so that migrant workers and daily wagers would be able to eke out their livelihood.
Ministers Kali Krishna Srinivas (health), Botcha Satyanarayana (municipal administration) and K. Kannababu (agriculture), Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney and Special Chief Secretary (HM&FW) K.S. Jawahar Reddy were present.
