Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has confirmed that 70 out of 87 covid-19 positive cases in the state are linked to the Tablighi meet at Nizamuddin in Delhi.
The state witnessed a massive jump in count as 47 fresh cases were reported since last night. At present, there are 87 coronavirus patients in the state, Reddy said.
Alarmed with the increasing number of cases after reports of Tablighi religious meet, the state government has decided to initiate a health survey of all the people in the state with the help of gram volunteers who would help in tracing and identify fresh cases.
He said that no stigma should be attached to the coronavirus as 80% of the cases proved negative after home quarantine while only a small 4% needed ICU. “On the whole, 1,085 persons from the state attended the Delhi congregation and we have tracked and taken samples of 585. While 70 were tested positive, results of 500 are yet to come and 21 people are yet to be traced,’’ he said.
The Andhra Pradesh government has notified 31 private hospitals as quarantine centres and has issued a special gazette notification to identify hospitals across the state. The state government has passed orders allowing it to use private and non-governmental healthcare institutes and their infrastructure to treat covid-19 patients.
“Private medical college attached hospitals and other private hospitals in the state are required for their services to be used in toto for covid-19 treatment,” KS Jawahar Reddy, special chief secretary, health and medical, said.
This is because there is an imminent need to scale up medical facilities for isolation rooms, beds, ventilators and testing labs, among other things, in view of the swelling number of positive cases, Reddy said.
Directives were issued to authorities of private and non-governmental medical institutes under the AP Epidemic Disease (Covid) Regulations 2020 and Disaster Management Act 2005, asking them to make available all their resources such as isolation beds, rooms, wards, ICUs, ventilators, testing labs, pharmacies, sanitised mortuaries and manpower for emergency response, rescue and relief operations.
“There is an imminent need of quick expansion of medical facilities in the state for isolation rooms, ventilators, testing labs and other medical facilities, infrastructure, material, manpower including doctors, nurses, other medical and non-medical staff. Therefore, private medical college attached hospitals and other private hospitals existing in the state are required for their services to be used for covid treatment,” Reddy added.
Meanwhile, in the wake of pandemic, the Andhra Pradesh government has announced deferment of payment of full salaries to the chief minister, other elected representative, officers and other state government employees, saying its revenue streams have totally dried up due to the ongoing lockdown to combat novel coronavirus. The deferments will range from 10% to 100% for different categories of employees.
“While the revenue streams have totally dried up due to the lockdown, the demand on state resources has increased tremendously for contact tracing, quarantining, providing personal protection equipment, drugs, health facilities, etc. and for providing financial assistance to the poor people, most affected by the lockdown,” chief secretary Nilam Sawhney said.
“There shall be 100% deferment in respect of chief minister, ministers, MLCs, MLAs chairpersons and members (political appointees) of all government-owned corporations, elected representatives of all local bodies and people holding equivalent posts,” the order stated. All India Services officers (IAS, IPS and IFS) will see a 60% deferment in their salaries, while all other employees will get only 50% of their pay, it said. However, class-IV employees, outsourced and contractual staff and the newly employed village and ward secretariat staff will be paid 90% of their salaries with only a 10% deferment, it added. Besides, serving and retired employees of all PSUs, government-aided institutions, universities and autonomous bodies would get only proportionate deferred payments, it stated.
Meanwhile, the state government has commenced door-to-door disbursal of pensions across the state. Pensions were distributed to 52.49 lakh pensioners by the volunteers, taking the total number of such beneficiaries to 93%. To prevent the virus spread, the volunteers have used photo identification method instead of biometric system, and a separate app was used to capture the beneficiary picture through geotagging.
