Government Urges Private Hospitals not to Exploit People During Coronavirus Pandemic

Amaravati: The State government warns that if the private hospitals collect extra money for covid treatment, then they will be in trouble and stringent action will be initiated. KS Jawahar Reddy, Medical and Health Department Special Chief Secretary KS Jawahar Reddy urged private hospitals not to exploit the people during a pandemic, at a press conference in Vijayawada, on Tuesday. He suggested corporate hospitals to follow the rate cards issued by the government. He asked the people to lodge complaints against the private hospitals if they violate the rules and collect extra money illegally.

The main focus of the State government is to reduce the mortality rate of COVID-19 cases, said Jawahar Reddy. The Special Chief Secretary said that the mortality rate in AP is under control and a few districts registered fewer deaths than earlier. While Nellore, Chittoor, and Prakasam districts registered an increase in deaths, Anantapur, Guntur, Krishna, Visakhapatnam and Srikakulam witnessed a decline.

Similarly, the number of positive cases has increased by 6.26 percent by registering an additional 8139 cases. While districts Anantapur, Guntur, Krishna, Kurnool, and Vizianagaram witnessed a steady decline of cases, Nellore, Prakasam, and Srikakulam districts registered an increased number of cases.

In regard to the Sero-Surveillance which was conducted in four districts Anantapur, East Godavari, Krishna, and Nellore, by testing the presence of IgG Antibodies, it was identified that the prevalence of the virus in 16.7 percent population of Anantapur district, 14.4 percent in East Godavari, 21.7 percent in Krishna, and 8.2 percent in Nellore. It was identified that a majority of prevalence was seen in urban areas and equally in non-containment zones. As far as urban prevalence is considered, it was found that Anantapur has 28.8 percent of sero-prevalence in urban areas, 19.5 percent in East Godavari, 35.2 percent in Krishna, and 13.8 percent in Nellore.

Jawahar Reddy said that the sero-surveillance program in the remaining nine districts is also being conducted. He said that the average doubling rate is currently 30 days, while the reproductive rate between August 23 and 29 is at 1.09 percent. In a span of one week, over 72,000 cases have been registered, which is 56 percent in rural and 44 percent in urban areas. He stated that 96 percent of the cases are coming from containment zones and only four percent of the cases are from non-containment zones.

After the press conference, Jawahar Reddy along with Krishna district collector Md Imtiaz released a book namely "Coronavirus – Mundu Jagrathale Mandu Vaidyam" (Coronavirus – Prevention is medicine and treatment), which was written in Telugu language by Dr T Seva Kumar, a private practitioner.