Hyderabad: Telangana state health minister Eatala Rajender today said that there was no shortage of beds for the treatment of COVID-19 patients. He said that the state has 60,000 beds for the 19 patients.
Speaking to media persons at BRKR Bhavan, he said that the second wave of the COVID-19 virus had begun in the state and added that only five percent of the total affected people were exhibiting the virus symptoms. He also said that they would administer the vaccines to all those above 45 years of age and front-line warriors. He said that they would also take steps for keeping the stocks of the vaccines at all the PHCs of the State. He said that they were administering the vaccines to 1.5 lakh people of the state every day and added that they had the capacity to administer 10 lakh vaccines per day.
Talking about the shortage of the vaccine, he said that they had taken the issue to the notice of union health minister Dr. Harshavardhan. He said that the vaccine administration drive was stopped due to the shortage of the vaccine and added that they were expecting to receive 2.7 Lakh doses of the vaccine by Sunday night. He said that the officials of the state government were in touch with their counterparts from the central government on the issue. He said that they were also holding discussions with the central government over the issue of oxygen supply by keeping in view the seriousness of the vaccine. He said that the state requires 200 tonnes of oxygen every day and added that their requirement would go up to 350 tonnes if the cases of the COVID-19 virus had gone up further in the State. He said that the issue of the supply of oxygen was within the power of the central government. He said that there was no shortage of oxygen in the state now.
Talking about the treatment being extended by the private hospitals of the state, he said that the private hospitals should extend the treatment to the COVID-19 patients as per ICMR guidelines. Commenting on the shortage of remdesivir injections, he said that the production of the injections had come down after a drop in the intensity of the virus and added that the injections would be made available to the Patients very soon.
He urged the Union Health Ministry to include individuals above 25 years in the COVID-19 vaccine eligibility criteria.