As the number of positive coronavirus cases in Telangana rose to 59 from 45 in a span of 24 hours, the chief minister on Friday claimed the government was readying for any eventuality, including for a hypothetical scenario of positive cases touching the 60,000-mark in the coming days.
The chief minister announced that arrangement to accommodate more than 11,000 people in isolation wards, besides creating additional 1400 beds in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) was afoot.
“The sports complex at Gachibowli is being converted into a makeshift hospital for the isolation and treatment of positive patients, besides the Gandhi Hospital at Secunderabad and King Kothi Hospital in Hyderabad. The government has already ordered 500 additional ventilators to treat patients in critical conditions,” K Chandrashekar Rao said.
He said the state currently had 12,400 beds with all facilities, including ICUs.
“Apart from existing 2,000-odd doctors in various government hospitals, we are also creating a pool of medical professionals by engaging 11,000 retired doctors, paramedical staff and lab technicians, so that they can plunge into action in any emergency situation,” KCR added, while laying out the plan of action.
The chief minister said the state was determined to win the war against coronavirus.
{{/usCountry}}The chief minister said the state was determined to win the war against coronavirus.
{{/usCountry}}“We have not lost hope. There is no laxity or indifference on the part of the government. We are fighting with a demon and we have to win the war,” he said.
The chief minister added that private hospitals were not being drafted into the government’s plan yet. “For now, the government hospitals would work on full scale to tackle the Covid-19 menace,” KCR said.
He said India was fighting to avert mass scale infections as seen in some other countries.
“According to an international report, nearly 20 crore Indians could have contracted the coronavirus disease by now going by what happened in China, Italy, the US and Spain. But we are strongly fighting back to prevent such a kind of situation,” he said.
He asked people to follow the lockdown norms and promised not to let even a single person starve.
“Whether the people are from Telangana or any other state, we shall provide food to them. The hostels would be reopened and people could stay there without any trouble. Nobody should go anywhere,” he said.
The chief minister also ordered release of water and power supply for crops sown in 50 lakh plus acres in the harvesting season. He said the farmers need not worry as the government would buy out their harvest without them having to worry about selling it.