The district committee of the CPI (M) has asked collector V. Vinay Chand to step up testing, reopen COVID-19 hospitals and isolation centers, and conduct vaccination campaigns in rural areas to control the rapid spread of the second wave of the pandemic.
In a letter to the collector on Thursday, the party’s district committee secretary K. Lokanadham said that experts have already warned that the virus is spreading rapidly in the second wave and called for urgent action to contain the spread, Pradesh could be another Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh will be.
He found that COVID-19 patients in the district faced a myriad of difficulties. The testing centers confirmed the patients were “positive” for COVID-19 but refused to admit them to hospitals until a message was received from the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR). The COVID center that opened in the Araku Valley in the past has now been closed. The staff who served there didn’t even get their salaries, he said.
The COVID hospitals and isolation centers that have worked in the past will have to reopen to cope with the increasing numbers of patients, Lokanadham said, denying authorities’ claims that there was no shortage of beds or equipment in the hospitals. Patients waiting outside of COVID hospitals due to unavailability of beds point out the given situation.
Mr Lokanadham also called for people in rural areas to be made aware of the need for vaccination. The vaccine should be made available free of charge to all eligible persons.