Four expert panels soon to monitor situation; Eatala Rajender

Hyderabad: Faced with the challenge to tackle Coronavirus threat in the State, the Telangana Health Department has decided to constitute four expert committees, each headed by an IAS officer to monitor the situation and track happenings on day to basis and take measures on priority basis.

Informing this at a press briefing held on Wednesday evening, Health Minister Eatala Rajender said he spoke on this issue with Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar to depute IAS officers to take care of the committees.

Elaborating further, the Minister stated the four committees would be surveillance committee, hospitals management committee, procurement committee and awareness campaign committee. He further stated that they are setting up a Command Control Centre in Health and Family Welfare Commissioner office in Koti so that he can take stock of the situation along with senior officials regularly if cases jump in the coming days.

Further, the Minister stated that corporate hospitals having isolation facilities were given permission to admit suspected cases and send the swab samples for testing to Gandhi hospital. He said this decision was taken to ease the burden on Gandhi for the convenience of patients who are willing to get admitted in the private hospitals.

He also welcomed the gesture of more than ten private medical colleges including Chalmeda, Malla Reddy, Mamatha, Mahaveer, Kamineni etc that have come forward to allocate 50 isolation beds each for admitting and testing of Coronavirus suspected cases in the state.

Rajender appealed to everyone to observe restraint and does not indulge in spreading of rumours and false information leading to panic in the society. He referred the case of some neighbors of the infected techie objecting to even opening of windows of the house he stays in in Mahendra Hills in Secunderabad. This sort of reaction is uncalled for as it has been scientifically stated that virus is not an airborne disease and not very dangerous unlike others, he pointed out.

The fact that even four members of the techie's family were clear from the virus as their sample results showed negative is an indication that people need not be too worried about it, the Minister said.

He took exception to news circulated in the media that IT corridor is in the grip of Coronavirus and IT techies are a panicked lot with the fresh development. The minister called upon people to dial 104 for any queries or doubts or concerns relating to the disease and get a clarity without believing rumours on various forums including social media