On the 5th of May, the Telangana Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar briefed about the current situation of the Novel Coronavirus or COVID-19 in the State.
Addressing the media, Somesh Kumar said under the leadership of K. Chandrashekar Rao, the Chief Minister of Telangana, the spread of the virus is under control with a fewer number of cases. Somesh Kumar said, “The Chief Minister has given blanket orders that funds are not an issue when it comes to containing Covid and taking care of patients. He said as much money needed can be spent for this.” He further said, “We worked continuously. We never worked with the thought that the disease has gone down.”
Informing about the availability of beds for COVID-19 patients, the Telangana CS said they had 18,000 beds in September 2020 but now the number has increased to 52,000 beds.
In addition, the State also helped COVID-19 patients from other regions of India. In the past 15 days, as many as 33 medical air ambulances landed in Hyderabad. In most of the cases, critically ill patients from Delhi and other places were airlifted for treatment in Hyderabad.
Somesh Kumar proudly said that Hyderabad has become the medical treatment capital of India. He said, “If you go to any hospital in the City, you will find patients from states like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Chhattisgarh. During the last 15 days, 33 medical air ambulances came from various parts of the country which shows that people don’t find such treatment elsewhere.”
Speaking about the availability of vaccines, Somesh Kumar said he recently held talks with vaccine manufacturers. The manufacturers assured to ramp up production after June or July. He also said the Telangana Government was corresponding with the Centre seeking increased allocation of vaccines and it has also written to companies to procure vaccines from manufacturers.
About the vaccination drive for people between 18 to 44 years old, Somesh Kumar said, “The State has 1.72 crore population in this age group and it requires 3.40 crore vaccines but they (Centre) have allotted only 3.90 lakh doses for the month of May.” He said the state government continued administering doses to people over 45 years. However, vaccination is being done only for those pre booking due to less supply from the Centre and also to prevent crowding at the centres.
Meanwhile, till the 6th of May, 42.24 lakh doses were administered in Telangana. Adding to this, the Telangana CS also highlighted the control over availability of Remdesvir injection.
Concluding the media briefing, Somesh Kumar confirmed there is no talk of lockdown in the State as of now. He also urged the people of Telangana to strictly follow COVID-19 protocol like wearing face masks and maintaining social distance.
Meanwhile, as of now Telangana has 77,127 active cases.
Stay tuned for further updates.
