Ready to spend `10, 000 cr to combat Covid-19: KCR

Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Saturday said that as many as 20,000 people had arrived in the State from foreign countries since March 1. Of them, 11, 000 have been traced and were asked to selfquarantine under the supervision of health and police officials.

Giving out statistics during a press conference, he said that with an increase in Covid-19 positive cases from Maharashtra, which has more than 500-km of border with Telangana state, the government was considering plans to close down the inter-state border after consultations with their Maharashtra counterparts.

Stating that as of now the situation is not alarming in the state, he said that the government is also making contingency plans to arrange for door delivery of essential commodities, in case of emergencydriven shut-down.

He explained that of the 11,000 who have been traced, 700 are suspected to bear Covid-19 symptoms and they are under medical observation.

All these foreign returned were identified after the Karimnagar episode wherein Indonesians were found with positive symptoms of Covid-19. The government duly alerted district collectors, superintendents and commissioners of police and officials of municipal and panchayat raj departments.

He said that “My appeal to all foreign returned individuals is to approach the authorities, who will test and keep them under observation. If anyone shows symptoms of the virus then they will be treated at government cost.”

Maintaining that the state was not poor, Mr Rao announced that they are prepared to spend

`10,000 crore to combat

Covid-19 and protect the people of the state.

He said that the government has set up 52 check posts across inter-state borders and 78 joint teams with medical and police department officials were deployed at the check-posts and an expert team has been constituted to monitor the situation at global level and make suggestion for improving precautionary measures.

He announced that the Prime Minister has accorded permission to make use of the lab facilities at Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad to test for the presence of coronavirus.

Referring to the ‘janata curfew’ call given by Mr Modi, he said that some social media ‘idiots’ were heckling the Prime Minister. He asked DGP Mahendar Reddy to book such mischief-mongers and take stern action against them.

While appealing the people stay at their homes on Sunday, he asked the people not to force their domestic helps to come for work on Sunday and nothing will happen to the rich people if they clean their homes for a day.

On the situation in Karimnagar, he said

55,000 people were checked and Karimnagar was found to be ‘safe’.

Stressing the need to safeguard doctors, he said masks, suits and testing kits have been made available in hospitals besides which were

500 additional ventilators.