Telangana halts patients to Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra hospitals

Hyderabad: In a bid to check the spread of deadly coronavirus from the highly-infected neighbouring states, the Telangana government clamped a total ban on the movement of people staying in the border areas of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra to seek medical aid, including emergency treatment.

This decision has been taken since the data indicates that there is surge of Covid-19 cases in these two neighbouring states. Hence, the people have been asked to defer all appointments with specialist doctors in AP and Maharashtra until normalcy was restored in those states. Telangana, the government feels, cannot take the risk of allowing them to travel to those states particularly at a time when there is a fall in new cases in the state.

People of old Mahbubnagar district along AP border were prohibited from going to Kurnool which had registered the highest number of positive cases in any district in Andhra. People from Khammam and Nalgonda districts have been asked not to go to Vijayawada which also has been marked as corona hotspot. Ban was also imposed on the movement of Nizamabad and Adilabad locals to Maharashtra.

People living in other Telangana districts, including Hyderabad which does not maintain border but have family relations in the two neighbouring states, are also not being permitted to go to those states.

Special teams with the Police, Medical and Health and local authorities have been formed to monitor the movement of the people from Telangana to these two states. The government deployed a big team at Mahbubnagar and Kurnool borders. If anyone attempts to go to Kurnool, they are being sent back to Hyderabad or local district hospital in Mahbubnagar.

Pregnant women are being sent to Hyderabad directly. Most of the people living in Gadwal and Wanaparthy prefer to go Kurnool Medical College hospital for treatment since the hospital there is equipped with advanced technology and also offers treatment free of cost. In case of emergency, patients from Khammam and Nalgonda districts have been advised to go to Hyderabad and not to Vijayawada which is close to the two Telangana districts. Similarly, those from Adilabad district were advised to stop going to Yavatmal city in Maharashtra for treatment. Normally people from Nizamabad go to Nagpur for medical assistance. Even they have been banned from going there. The District Collectors have been asked to provide all the assistance required for emergency patients by sending them to nearby by big hospital or Hyderabad for the treatment of chronic ailments. Transport facility and treatment is being provided to all poor patients, officials told The Hans India.