Health Minister Eatala Rajender says state can tackle Coronavirus better

Hyderabad: Health Minister Eatala Rajender assured the Council members that Telangana was now better equipped to handle Covid.

Replying to short notice discussion in the State Legislative Council here on Thursday, he shared the concerns of the members who were worried about the growing corona cases in the State.

Explaining at length the measures taken by the State government in containing Covid spread, he reiterated that there was no single way to treat the virus, that still lacks a vaccine. However, the knowledge gained over months in treating the patients has helped the State tackling it better, he said.

Dismissing the criticism against the State government, he said sometimes he was pained by the intemperate comments made by the opposition members. He recalled how the State had first formulated the idea of containment zone in Karimnagar to contain Covid spread.

Adding that the State had strictly observed the guidelines suggested by the World Health Organisation and the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), Eatala explained how Gandhi was designated for Covid treatment. Informing that currently there were 121 private centres offering isolation facilities for people lacking space at their homes, the Minister said that the State government was paying Rs 200 per person a day in the rural areas and Rs 270 in the urban areas.

He further assured that more such centres would be permitted keeping in view the constraints being faced by the people to remain in total isolation.

He also assured the members that the government would sympathetically consider an extension of incentives for few more months to the sanitation workers of urban civic bodies, village panchayats and in GHMC area for their services in containing the virus.

Earlier, participating in the discussion, BJP MLC N Ramchander Rao urged the Minister to immediately take up the appointment of doctors and nurses on permanent basis, besides implementing the Ayushman Bharat and including Covid under Arogyasri scheme.

While Congress MLC T Jeevan Reddy called for extension of incentives to sanitation staff for six more months, AIMIM MLC Amin Ul Hasan Jafri urged the Minister to increase the spending on the health sector.

Council Chairman Gutha Sukender Reddy requested the Minister to establish a toll-free number for people to lodge their complaints with the government proposed task force to oversee the Covid treatment in the private hospitals.