Kadapa: Shortage of equipment is universal, says Minister Alla Nani

Kadapa: Admitting that there was shortage of personal protection equipment (PPE) for health personnel dealing with Covid-19 crisis, medical and health minister Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas alias Nani pointed out this was not the problem for state alone and even advanced countries like US were experiencing it.

Stating that the government would ensuring all steps to provide relief to people in distress because of the lockdown, he said Rs 900 crore worth rice was distributed to 40lakh people and Rs 1300 crore was distributed each family at the rate of Rs 1,000 in the entire state.

Nani addressed the media along with Deputy Chief Minister Amzath Basha, finance minister B Rajendranath Reddy, educational minister Audimulapu Suresh here on Tuesday.

While finding fault with the opposition parties for blaming the government over coronavirus, finance minister B Rajendranath Reddy said that government had released Rs 120 crore to deal with the menace and all departments were striving hard round-the-clock.

Defending payment of dues to contractors of Polavaram and Chintalapudi projects, the finance minister said there was nothing wrong in it in clearing bills when the works were going on. He pointed out that the previous government piled up around Rs 40,000 crore dues for Aarogyasri, student fee re-imbursement, contractors and discoms.

"If you find anything wrong in dealing with coronavirus, you can point out to the government. But it is not correct for the opposition parties to write letters over unnecessary issues instead of extending moral support to the government in present crisis," he said.

Health minister Nani said 304 Covid-19 positive cases had been reported as against 3,930 samples tested, and the remaining 3,270 cases were tested negative in the state.

The minister said that results for another 3,356 blood samples sent afresh for tests recently.

In Kadapa district, the health minister disclosed that 27 cases were tested positive as against 664 blood samples sent for tests. However, he said no foreign returnee out of the 4,941 has been tested positive in the district and the positive cases reported were from 402 people who participated in a Delhi convention. He said results of another 238 fresh blood samples were awaited.

Telling people not to panic over rising number of cases, the minister assured that the government would initiate all precautionary measures to prevent the spread of virus. He said 13 labs had been established in the state to increase testing.

He urged the people to follow the health guidelines by maintaining physical distance in public places.

"There was no dangerous situation as AP is under safe zone. But this is no time for complacency and people should always be careful and extend their moral support to the government," he said.

Nani inaugurated two Covid-19 community testing ambulances and earlier conducted review meeting with the officials over the situation. Government Chief Whip G Srikanth Reddy, party MLAs, district collector Ch Harikiran, SP K N N Anburajan and others were present.