Tirupati: Oxygen plants to be set up at all 100-bed hospitals

Tirupati: Principal Secretary of Health Anil Kumar Singhal visited a few vaccination centres in Tirupati on Sunday and interacted with vaccine beneficiaries who took the jab on the mega vaccination day.

Singhal said that the Chief Minister has been reviewing Covid situation thrice a week. The State has successfully completed 6.29 lakh doses of vaccination on a single day earlier. The Chief Minister has earlier brought the issue to the notice of the Prime Minister.

The State has completed 96.69 lakh first doses till now. Referring to the Covid cases, Singhal said that there was a significant drop in the new infections in the State which have come down to below 6,000 now from around 24,000 earlier. There are only 65,000 active cases in the State now.

The curfew restrictions have helped in bringing down the cases. With the improvement in the situation, it was decided to relax curfew from 6 am to 6 pm and will be imposed from 6 pm to 6 am from Monday.

He added that everyone wishes that the third wave should not come. But even if it is inevitable, the State is all set to face it. Already a State-level committee was constituted in which paediatric senior doctors are also appointed as members. Required beds, medicines and staff are being made available and staff will be trained too.

So far 770 patients were given black fungus treatment and Remdesivir, Amphotericin B injections are now available in the State. Efforts were on to ensure that there should be no shortage of oxygen in hospitals by August and to set up oxygen plants in 100-bed hospitals, tenders were called for with an estimated cost of Rs 350 crore. Apart from liquid oxygen, oxygen concentrators are also made available.

Chittoor Collector M Hari Narayanan told the Principal Secretary that arrangements were made to vaccinate 1.05 lakh doses on Sunday and the target will be reached by evening. Corporation Commissioner PS Girisha, DM&HO Dr U Sreehari, RDO V Kanaka Narasa Reddy, Corporation health officer Dr DT Sudha Rani, Ruia hospital superintendent Dr T Bharathi and others were present during the visit.