Congress Wants Centre To Take Over Covid Management

Congress MP Revanth Reddy today urged the Joint Secretary of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Luv Aggarwal to take over management of Covid-19 in Telangana immediately and constitute a committee headed by him to handle the epidemic so as to stop further damage.

He told the Joint Secretary that Hyderabad would see a drastic surge in Covid-19 cases and fatalities.

In a letter, Reddy said that the Covid-19 positive rate as on June 23 in Telangana was 32.1%, which was the highest among the major cities in the country. He also said that the tests per 10 lakh population was abysmally low in the state, and that only around 70,000 tests had been conducted in total.

"Testing is vital to understand the growth of the virus and control it. There is no transparency in the tests being conducted, leaving the entire state in uncertainty," he said, pointing out that the state government had been repeatedly told by the ICMR to improve the rate of testing but never did it.

Reddy also said that there was a shortage of TruNat machines, with Telangana having only 22 compared to Andhra Pradesh's 42.

"There is also only one central lab for testing which is barely sufficient for the population and spread in the state. Only Gandhi Hospital is recognised as a government-approved treatment centre but there is a lack of proper medication, sanitation, hygiene and care in treating Covid-19 patients there. The staff needed to run the hospital is 1,200 but the actual strength is only 400. This is causing immense burden on each and every member working there. In the same hospital, our frontline warriors, the doctors, protested for 72 hours, in rain, for PPE kits and the necessary equipment to fight the virus, and they're struggling every day putting their lives at stake. Recently a journalist named Manoj passed away at Gandhi due to negligence in his treatment. He had complained that he wasn't even being given water let alone treatment, and passed away soon after complaining. Journalists had staged a dharna against this. And TIMS is only a namesake facility as there are neither the necessary equipment nor the medical staff needed to run the hospital. I have visited the place myself and there is nothing there but a few beds donated by a corporate company," Reddy added.

He also said that 22 private hospitals not under the wing of the state government were being under-utilised.

He said that seeing the dire situation he had given some of his MPLADS funds for the fight against the coronavirus, but that they hadn't yet been utilised, showing the attitude of the state government.