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Journalism of Courage
The Andhra Pradesh government on Saturday appealed to people to seek medical help “without any delay” if they display Covid-19 symptoms, even as the state recorded 10,080 new cases and 97 new deaths. Special Chief Secretary (Health) K S Jawahar Reddy said the mortality rate was under control, but appealed to people to go to hospitals if necessary. “I am appealing to people to seek medical care at the earliest possible before the condition deteriorates. If a person has symptoms like high fever, breathlessness, and oxygen saturation drops below 94 per cent they should seek medical help without any delay,” he said.
The state recorded 1,939 deaths in total and over 2 lakh cases. Reddy asserted that the public should start taking responsibility to contain the virus and stressed the need to use masks, maintain physical distance and wash hands at frequent intervals.
“To bring down the mortality rate, we must follow all clinical protocols and make sure that death only occurs when the patient is serious and on a ventilator and not on a general bed… In case the death occurs within six days of admission, then the problem lies somewhere apart from the treatment provided,” he said.
The government is taking up community-based sero-surveillance in Krishna, East Godavari, Anantapur and Nellore districts to ascertain the extent of the infection among people. As many as 3,750 samples in each district will be collected and tested for the presence of IgG Antibodies.
Reddy said efforts are on to recruit 20,000 additional staff in 138 Covid hospitals and 1,000 more ventilators have been made available. He said a helpdesk has been set up at every hospital to provide status updates on patients to their relatives and also give updates on the availability of beds.
The government also increased the number of Covid beds at King George Hospital (KGH) at Visakhapatnam. Visakhapatnam district in-charge minister M Srinivas Rao said 550 more beds would be available in KGH’s Covid-19 block. Health officials have warned that Visakhapatnam may become a Covid-19 hotspot, so testing centres have been set up at all urban primary health centres.
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