The Andhra Pradesh government has decided to pay Rs 5000 to plasma donors, in order to promote plasma donation by patients who have recovered from COVID-19. The amount would be paid as a cash incentive to donors. The government is also initiating steps to bring in transparency in the availability of beds and providing care to the infected persons. A decision was made in a review meeting held on Friday, regarding the remedial steps to handle the state's coronavirus cases.
In the review meeting, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy directed that Rs 5,000 should be paid to every plasma donor who has recovered from COVID-19.
The CM also instructed the officials to prepare a Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs) for better medical facilities and sought details of bed strength and the availability of help desks in the hospitals identified for COVID-19 treatment in every district. In addition, CM Jagan has also called for displaying all the details on a black board in the hospitals and in digitised form wherever possible.
A state health department official said that the Chief Minister directed the officials to strictly monitor four aspects, namely medicines, treatment, food and hygiene in the 138 COVID-19 hospitals in the state. The official stated that 36,778 beds are available in 138 hospitals at present.
Medical and Health Minister Alla Nani, Special Chief Secretary (medical and health) Jawahar Reddy and other officials participated in the meeting.
Meanwhile, the state continues to face increasingly high numbers of COVID-19 cases every day. On Friday too, the state reported an all-time high of 10,376 new cases.