Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy announced that the night curfew in the State would be lifted due to low positivity rate of COVID-19.
During a review meeting on the pandemic, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said that COVID-19 precautions must continue to be taken at all times, especially in the public and commercial spaces by wearing masks. He directed the authorities to continue the fever survey and told them to conduct tests for those with symptoms. Also, he stressed on achieving 100% vaccination in the State.
Regarding hiring of staff, the Chief Minister directed the authorities to complete the recruitments in the Medical and Health Department at the earliest, ensuring that all hospitals are enabled with proper workforce with zero vacancies. He instructed officials to separate both administrative and medical responsibilities in hospitals and hand over the administrative work to those having expertise in that field.
During the meeting, the Chief Minister announced incentives to specialist doctors and doctors working in tribal areas. Officials said 50% of the basic salary can be given as an incentive to specialist doctors and similarly for doctors, 30% of the basic pay can be given as a special incentive.
Meanwhile, elaborating details of COVID-19 situation, officials said that the pandemic is on the wane, where 794 patients are getting treated in hospitals while the number of positive cases in the State have come down to 18,929, registering only 0.82% of COVID-19 active cases. The positivity rate has also fallen to 3.29% from 17.07% and there were zero cases in almost 9,581 village/wards secretariats.
On the vaccination front, officials said 3.90 lakh people have been administered two doses of vaccination, and 39.04 lakh were given a single dose. While the target for the precautionary dose is 15.02 lakh, 11.84 lakh people have been vaccinated. The officials informed that 96.7% of vaccination was completed in the 45+ age group and similarly, 90.07% vaccination was done for people between the 18-44 age group. For teens between 15-18 years, 24.41 lakh have been administered with a single dose of vaccine, while 12.48 lakh have received their second dose of vaccine.
Deputy Chief Minister Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas (Nani), Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma, Principal Secretary of Health Department Anil Kumar Singhal, Principal Secretary of Health Department (COVID-19 Management and Vaccination) Muddada Ravichandra, and COVID-19 Task Force Committee Chairman M.T. Krishnababu were present.
