State fully prepared to curb spread of COVID-19: Andhra Pradesh minister

Andhra Pradesh Tourism Minister Muthamsetti Srinivasa Rao on Monday said that the state government is fully prepared to curb the intensity of the COVID-19 second wave.

After reviewing COVID-19 control measures in the district with the Vishakhapatnam district authorities, Rao said that Commissioner G Srijana would oversee control measures in Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) and Joint Collector P Arun Babu Covid in other rural areas of the district.

People have been asked to abide by the COVID-19 guidelines without negligence.

District Collector V Vinay Chand said a total of 6,568 beds were available in government and private hospitals in the district. The district has 1,022 ICU beds, 2,650 non-ICU oxygen beds, 2,896 non ICU beds and 710 ventilators available and a production capacity of one and a half times more than the required oxygen, he said.

He said that 72 Primary health care centres (PHC) are working in GVMC. "We test 5,000 people every day in the district and report the results within 24 hours."

"The first dose of the Covshield vaccine was taken by four lakh people and the second dose by 59 thousand people. The 104 call centre was fully operational and was serving the people for hospital admissions and testing," he further said. Chand said 108 vehicles were ordered to be utilised in the rural area to transport the patients.

Mayor Golag Hari Venkata Kumari, District COVID-19 Special Officer Praveen Kumar, City Police Commissioner Msh Kumar Sinha, Joint Collector P Arun Babu, GVMC Commissioner G Srijana and other district officials were present on the occasion.

Andhra Pradesh reported as many as 5,963 new COVID-19 cases in the state in the past 24 hours and 27 related deaths.

The total number of active cases in the state currently stands at 48,053.

( With inputs from ANI )