Prime Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday directed officials to increase the availability of beds for treating COVID patients and Aarogyasri patients in the District Collectors notified YSR hospitals with Aarogyasri staffed and unstaffed hospitals 50 % of the beds available.
In a briefing meeting on COVID and vaccination, Jagan said that COVID treatment should be offered free of charge in all staffed hospitals and that there should be clarity about the beds available in Aarogyasri’s hospitals. He wanted COVID care centers to be set up near all COVID hospitals.
Officials informed the prime minister that there are currently 108 government hospitals, 349 corporate hospitals, 47 corporate hospitals with temporary staffing, and 94 private category hospitals in the state providing COVID treatments.
The total number of beds in 598 hospitals was 48,439, of which 41,517 were occupied and 6,922 beds were vacant. A total of 24,500 COVID patients are treated according to the Aarogyasri scheme.
Oxygen production
The prime minister ordered that officials examine all options to increase oxygen production while trying to procure additional supplies from the center.
Officials said COVID hospitals used up to 500 tons of oxygen per day and should reach 1,000 tons by May 15. State-level storage capacity was only 515 tons.
Given the growing demand for oxygen, the state government asked the center to move 200 tons per day from Sriperumbudur and another 200 tons from Ballari and Odisha.
A total of 16,981 employees were hired this year, including medical professionals, nurses, technicians, data entry operators, as well as cellular network operators and FNOs.
vaccination
Regarding vaccination, so far two lakh people have been given two doses and 42 lakh people have been given a single dose.
The Deputy CM and Health Minister Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas, the General Secretary Aditya Nath Das, the chairman of the Covid command control KS Jawahar Reddy and the DGP Gautam Sawang were present.