'Mad rush' of COVID-19 patients to Hyderabad leading to 'discrepancy' in numbers, says Telangana Minister

Hyderabad, May 13: Telangana on Wednesday claimed there is discrepancy in COVID-19 cases in the Southern state as there was "mad rush" of patients from neighbouring states and requestedthe Centre to make allocations of oxygen and Remdesivir based on number of beds available in the state rather than population.

Telangana Finance Minister T Harish Rao, who participated in a video conference with Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, said the number of COVID-19 patients from outside outpaces that of within, according to an official release.

"With Telangana State becoming a medical Hub, people from the neighbouring states are rushing to Hyderabad and their numbers are far more than the patients within the State. Hence there was mad rush of patients. People from AP, Karnataka, and Maharashtra, who have tested positive in their states, are coming to Hyderabad for the treatment."
"Hence there is discrepancy in the Covid positive cases number," the release quoted Harish Rao as saying.

Rao said the state government had enhanced the basic health infrastructure considerably by the time the second wave arrived. The number of beds in the state was tripled to over 50,000 during the COVID-19 second wave.

The Union Minister expressed satisfaction over the decrease in the intensity of the coronavirus in Telangana and assured that supply of Oxygen, medicines and injections like Remdesivir, vaccines, testing kits, ventilators and other COVID-19 related drugs and essentials would be done immediately and the state's quota would also be increased in this regard, the release said.

Harish Rao explained the curtailment measures taken by the state government and urged Vardhan to enhance Telangana's quota and supply the required quantity of essential materials immediately.

The Telangana minister said the oxygen quota to the state should be increased to 600 tonnes per day from the existing 450 tonnes while supply of Remdesivir injections should be increased to 20,000 vials per day.

Since patients are coming to Telangana by Air Ambulances, the supply of Tocilizumab injections should be increased from 810 to 1,500 per day, he said, adding the state needs 2 lakh testing kits per day.

The state needs 1.29 crore COVID-19 vaccines in order to inoculate people above 45 years of age and there is an urgent need of 13 lakh vaccines till end of this month, as part of the second dose and it should be supplied immediately, the release added.