Telangana fully-geared to deal with Coronavirus cases: Etela Rajender

The Health officials on Monday reassured that the government hospitals were fully equipped to treat the COVID-19 patients. They stated that the hospitals have adequate beds as well as other facilities to treat the patients and termed reports of lack of facilities at government hospitals as false propaganda.

Further, the authorities complained to Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao that as some people were filing Public Interest Litigations (PILs), they were forced to engage in preparations for the legal battles instead of treating the patients. They stated that conducting tests to even the deceased persons as per the High Court was humanly not possible and urged the State government to approach the Supreme Court against the High Court orders.

At a marathon meeting convened by the Chief Minister on prevailing conditions of COVID-19 and preparedness of the State government at Pragathi Bhavan on Monday, the Health officials said unnecessary panic was being created among people due to false propaganda by some media outlets and social media users with malicious intentions. They rubbished the allegations of lack of facilities in government hospitals and said such false propaganda was affecting the morales of the frontline medical professionals who are serving despite the risk posed by the deadly disease.

The officials asserted that presently there were only 247 patients infected with coronavirus at Gandhi Hospital, which was capable of treating over 2,000 people. Further, about 1,000 beds were equipped with oxygen and other facilities to treat serious cases. “The fact is that so far, there was never the need to use the existing facilities fully,” the officials said.

“Then, how can anyone declare that the existing facilities are not enough to treat patients. It is nothing but false propaganda being spread by some people with ulterior motives,” the officials said. While Covid-19 patients with symptoms were being treated in the Gandhi Hospital, asymptomatic patients were being given treatment in home quarantine. Besides 9.61lakh PPE kits and 15 lakh N95 masks,



officials have kept 3,600 beds with oxygen facility and other equipment, ready.

The officials pointed out that patients who were treated successfully at Gandhi Hospital were appreciating the efforts of the doctors. On reports of medical staff getting infected, they pointed out that such a phenomenon was being observed across the world and not exclusively in Gandhi Hospital.

“Such propaganda will have a negative impact on the morale of frontline workers. While about 10,000 medical staff contracted the deadly disease across the country, around 480 cases were reported at AIIMS New Delhi. We have only 86 medical staff including doctors who were affected. The condition of all the patients is stable and they are being treated with utmost care,” they said.

They explained that deaths of nearly 95 per cent Covid-19 patients were mostly due to premorbidities. They said terming the deaths as coronavirus deaths, was an unscientific determination of cause of death. The health authorities urged the State government to approach the Supreme Court against the HC orders asking the authorities to conduct tests on deceased persons.

They pointed out that nearly 1,000 persons were dying in the State everyday due to various reasons and it was not possible to conduct tests on all the deceased as doctors were busy treating Covid-19 patients as well as patients with other ailments and also pregnant women.

The Chief Minister advised people to take adequate precautions and not panic. He cited doctors and health experts stating that only a limited number of critical cases were found among those being tested in the State. Reiterating that the State government was fully geared to contain the spread of Covid, he urged people to strictly follow norms.

Health Minister Eatala Rajender, CS Somesh Kumar, Special CS (Health) Shanthi Kumari, Commissioner of Health Yogitha Rana, DME Ramesh Reddy, Director of Medical and Health Srinivas, KNRUHS Vice-Chancellor Karunakar Reddy among others were present.