Telangana not ready to face Covid third wave
Prof K Vijay Raghavan
Hyderabad: The Union government's Principal Scientific Advisor Prof K Vijay Raghavan said the third wave of Covid-19 may be inevitable, if strong measures are not taken now.
"We have seen that coronavirus crisis is not a systemic problem but a result of negligence on the part of people and governments. It now appears that the Telangana government is yet to gear up to meet the new challenge," sources said.
The sources said instructions were not given to increase beds. Officials feel that there was no need to worry about the third wave. "We have a worldclass pediatric hospital and already internal plans have been mapped, said Dr Ramesh Reddy, Director Medical Education.
"Niloufer Hospital with 1,000 well-equipped beds is well-equipped to deal with any crisis. More can be enhanced if needed. It is not a big task to deal with infected children as about 1,000 children including infants were treated in the first wave," he said, adding that Gandhi Hospital has also been instructed to increase the bed facility in a bid to face the third wave.
But a ground check by The Hans India revealed that contrary to the claims that Niloufer Hospital was well equipped, no guidelines have been received by them or any other hospital to meet the impending challenge.
Experts say that the government should strengthen the Primary Health Centres in the state on war footing with the latest equipment to curb the virus at the initial stage which would help manage the situation effectively. It should also focus on procuring necessary medicines and take all measures to curb black marketing as we are now seeing during the second wave, sources said.
According to health experts, the third wave will infect children between 0-18 years on a large scale.
They feel that the state government should not only wake up immediately and come up with guidelines and see that necessary infrastructure was in place. They also suggest that the guidelines should be implemented strictly. "Already we have seen two waves and if we blink, the third wave would be manmade disaster," they warn.