Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday directed the officials to ensure allotment of a bed to a COVID-19 positive patient within 30 minutes of his/her arrival in a hospital.
Reviewing COVID-19 pandemic in the State with Collectors, Joint Collectors and officials of police and other allied departments as part of the Spandana programme, Mr. Jagan wanted efficient management of the available beds in COVID hospitals.
‘Share info with people’
He said that the details of the availability of beds should be made known to the public and a toll-free number 1902 should be introduced to enable patients report to the authorities concerned if they had complaints about the treatment or facilities in the hospital. He wanted speedy action on the issues that were brought to the fore through this complaint cell.
The Chief Minister made it clear that the authorities should not hesitate about the expenditure incurred on imparting good treatment and extending good services to the patients. One need not panic due to the spurt in the positive cases as “we can efficiently handle them.”
Aid for last rites
The Chief Minister called “inhuman” the act of abandoning the bodies of the COVID victims, and announced a financial aid of ₹ 15,000 for performing the last rites for such victims.
He said if none would come forward to own up a body, the State would take up the responsibility and give the person dignity in death.
Admitting that the sudden spurt in the cases had triggered a fear in people’s minds, Mr. Jagan said the government had been on its toes ever since the virus broke out.
Without leaving any scope for laxity, it had acted swiftly to establish labs and had been conducting over 50,000 tests in a day. Though the State had registered over 1 lakh positive cases, more than half of them had recovered and were sent home.
The Chief Minister said that even in the absence of modern corporate hospitals like other States, the death rate, at 1.06 %, was under control in Andhra Pradesh, adding people would have to learn to live with the virus till a vaccine is developed.
