Covid 2nd wave hits districts hard

Hyderabad: The sudden surge in corona positive cases are worrying the district administrations, after Covid second wave, as the administrations of many districts are not ready to deal with the coronavirus. Especially, the newly formed districts are facing more troubles in terms of infrastructure.

Apart from GHMC, Medchal district recorded 208, Nizamabad recorded 176, Ranga Reddy 162, Nirmal 111 and Jagtial has recorded 105 positive cases in the last 24 hours. The numbers were constant for the last three days but sufficient beds are not available in these localities.

Though Health Minister Eatala Rajender and the department have repeatedly claimed that there is adequate infrastructure in the State but all the facilities were provided in the hospitals located in Hyderabad only and no such facilities are available at district hospitals, especially in the newly formed.

Adilabad Rims, the hospitals in Siddipet, Nizamabad, Nalgonda, Suryapeta, Mahbubnagar Teaching Hospitals, Karimnagar, Khammam District Hospitals are treating patients in serious condition.

Only those hospitals that were dedicated for Covid-19 treatment such as Gandhi Medical College, Telangana Institute of Medical Science, King Koti and others have oxygen and ventilators. These facilities were deactivated as the cases reduced and the infrastructure has been activated again after the second wave hits the State.

According to information, all positive patients were suggested for home isolation. The district administrations were instructed not to admit patients, who are stable, and not to refer them to Hyderabad, unless it is an emergency.

It should be noted here that a Covid positive patient from a district was brought to King Koti Hospital in a serious condition last week and died in an ambulance on his way to Gandhi Hospital.

According to Jagtial District Medical and Health Officer (DMHO), all the beds arranged by the government were occupied by new patients, who were referred to a local private hospital currently. There are only two ventilators available in the government hospital and the pipeline works for oxygen supply is in the process, which would be completed soon.

Recently the State government has asserted that as many as 11,000 oxygen beds were prepared to deal with Covid-19 and adequate ventilators also have been arranged to deal with coronavirus. But the number of active patients is 15,472, among which more than 10,000 patients were in isolation across the State.

It's also said that there is no equipment to conduct tests like

D-dimer, CRP, IL 6 and LDH and the samples were being sent to private labs for test. It was reported that patient attendants were asked to take the samples. The cost of testing the samples is expensive at private labs, hence the public is requesting the government to make the tests free of cost.