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Telangana dedicates hospital for Covid-19 patients as infections rise to 45
The Telangana government will convert the Gandhi Hospital at Secunderabad into an exclusive hospital to deal with only Corona virus-related cases.
Telangana reported four more positive cases for Sars-Cov-2 virus – none with travel history to foreign countries, taking the total number of cases of secondary infection to nine and overall number of positive cases to 45 in the state on Thursday.
On the other hand, Andhra Pradesh reported one more positive Covid-19 case on Thursday – that of a 28-year old man who returned from Stockholm in Sweden to Vijayawada on March 18 and was admitted to the local government hospital with symptoms on Wednesday. The total number of positive cases in AP went up to 11 by Thursday night.
The detection of four more cases of secondary infection on Thursday kept the Telangana government on tenterhooks. One of the four new cases was that of a 49-year old man from Qutbullapur of Medchal district who returned from Delhi in Sampark Kranti Express on March 14, along with 13 Indonesians, 10 of whom tested positive for the virus.
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The other two cases are that of a 36-year old female doctor and her 41-year old husband from Domalguda in Hyderabad. And the fourth one was a 45-year old man from Boudhanagar in Secunderabad who also tested positive for Sars-Cov-2 virus on his return from Delhi recently.
Telangana had already reported five such cases of secondary infection in the last one week. Two of these cases include a deputy superintendent of police of Bhadradri Kothagudem district who contracted the virus from his Australia-returned son and an old female cook in his house.
Health minister Etala Rajender, who reviewed the alarming rise of secondary infections of Covid-19, declared that the virus had already entered the second stage in Telangana and directed the authorities to take all possible steps to see that it did not enter the third phase.
The minister directed the Telangana Vaidya Vidhana Parishad authorities to take steps to convert the entire Gandhi Hospital at Secunderabad into an exclusive hospital to deal with only Corona virus-related cases and all the other departments should be shifted to Osmania Hospital.
“Already, all major surgeries in Gandhi Hospital have been referred to Osmania. In the next few days, all the other departments, too, should shift to Osmania Hospital, so that Gandhi Hospital can be dedicated only to Corona virus patients,” he said.
Rajender also asked the medical infrastructure development corporation to acquire as many equipment as possible, including ICU facilities and ventilators, at the earliest to brace for the situation in the event of the disease enters the third phase.
Meanwhile, the situation turned tense at the Telangana-Andhra borders, where hundreds of students and employees evicted from hostels in Hyderabad, found themselves following a categorical announcement by Andhra chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy that it was not possible to allow the stranded travellers to enter the state.
“It is very painful to see so many people being held up at borders and I am not in a position to welcome my own state’s people. But I am helpless in allowing them into the state because of the grave situation prevailing on account of Coronavirus,” he said, and appealed to the people to stay wherever they were.
At Vadapalli check-post on Telangana-Andhra border on Nalgonda-Guntur state highway, scores of people who had been waiting to get into AP border since Wednesday night, turned violent and pelted stones at the police, injuring at least five constables. The police resorted to lathi charge to disperse the protestors.
The AP government told them that they would be allowed into the state only if they agree to be quarantined for 14-days.
