“A mega vaccination drive will be conducted in the city for all the individuals between 18-45 years of age in all the Primary and Community Health Centres on 28 and 31 August,” said Visakhapatnam District Collector Dr. A Mallikarjuna IAS on Friday. He was in a district-level medical review meeting at the VMRDA Children’s Arena with GVMC commissioner G Srijana IAS and other district medical officers in Vizag.
The Collector revealed that the State Government has issued orders to give priority to the vaccination of youngsters. Hence, a two-day vaccination drive is being conducted and a target has been set to vaccinate 1 lakh 60 thousand people in the 18-44 years age bracket. This vaccination drive will apparently be conducted in saturation mode. The district has been quickly vaccinating every individual in view of the third wave threat.
During the review meeting, the Collector instructed all the government hospitals in Vizag to design necessary infrastructure, prepare beds and acquire essential medicines and oxygen cylinders as preparation for the third wave. With the district reporting Covid-19 cases at a 2.4 percent positivity rate, the Collector has urged the medical officials to prevent anyone from dying. Everyone has been asked to follow the SMS protocol – Social distancing, Mask-wearing and Sanitisation of hands and those violating norms are to be levied fines by the police.
“Around 7,000 doses of the Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) for Universal Immunization Program have been readied which are to be given to children to protect against pneumonia. Medical staff is to achieve the targeted goal,” said The Collector. In view of the spread of seasonal diseases like malaria and dengue, the Collector has asked the medical officers to give special attention to controlling malaria and dengue cases in rural, urban and agency areas in Visakhapatnam. So far, malaria cases have been reported in 27 zones. These areas are to be focused on during the conduct of anti-malaria and fogging operations and sanitation. “If a doctor identifies a lot of fever cases in a particular area, a door-to-door survey is to be conducted by the staff. Test results should be sent to the DMHO office and immediate treatment should be done at a preliminary level to avoid any deaths,” the Collector added.
At the review meeting, the Collector also asked the medical teams in the Vizag Agency area to educate the tribals on the need to use mosquito nets to avoid fevers. R Gopalakrishna from the Integrated Tribal Development Authority (ITDA) was asked to quickly develop the infrastructure for the management of surgeries at Paderu and Araku regional hospitals. Delivery cases at PHCs are to be registered under YSR Aarogyasri. Under the Maternal Security Scheme, patient data is required to be registered on Arogya Mitra and the case sheet and documents are to be uploaded. Incentives will be given to post-discharge patients under YSR Health support. The Collector asked for computer operators to be hired to upload the patient data online.
The District Medical and Health Office (DMHO) has been directed to send details of these vacancies to be filled. Also, a notification will soon be released for recruiting PG doctors, Pediatricians, Anesthetists and Gynecologists with special allowances on contract basis to work at the hospitals in Visakhapatnam Agency.
Speaking at the meet, GVMC Commissioner G Srijana said that malaria hotspot areas and clear water storage points are going to be identified in the city. She asked the paramedics to come forward and organize blood donation camps so as to help those patients who are in need of platelets urgently.
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