Telangana Governor interacts with eminent personalities on evolving discrete, proactive, concrete strategy in combating COVID-19

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], June 16 : Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Monday, interacted with eminent personalities and experts through videoconferencing to take their expert opinion on evolving a discrete, proactive and concrete strategy to combat COVID-19 in the State.
According to press release from Raj Bhavan, Telangana, the Governor interacted with Dr. Rakesh Mishra, Director, CCMB, K. Sujatha Rao, IAS (Retd), former Health Secretary, Government of India, H.J. Dora, IPS (Retd), former Director-General of Police, Andhra Pradesh, Dr Hari Prasad, President, Apollo Hospitals, Dr. Vijendar Reddy, President, IMA, Telangana, Dr Swaminathan, USA, Specialist in COVID and Nephrologist, K. Vamsimohan, first patient treated with plasma therapy.
The press release said, after interaction with the above eminent personalities, the following suggestions have come in--Testing Strategy (Test, Trace and Treat)--A rationale state testing policy be evolved based on the local conditions, rather than strictly adhering to broad guidelines of ICMR. Epidemiological spread based testing may be undertaken. Tracing needs to be done effectively. Death cases which have symptoms of covid-19 may be tested to facilitate isolation of family members and to know the epidemiological spread of disease.
Since lockdown is not an affordable option, for a prolonged period, the only strategy that can be adopted is "test, trace and treat". Ramp up the conduct of tests to cover all asymptomatic cases in the identified red zones and hotspots.
Conducting of antibody tests be started to understand community spread. Pool testing in the hotspots. Deployment of more mobile and drive-thru testing laboratories. Proactive and aggressive conduct of RTPCR.
Safeguard the frontline warriors, such as doctors, paramedical staff, media persons, police, persons doing social service, sanitary workers shall be our endeavor. All of them may be tested periodically.
Strict implementation of the statutes and stringent action against those who attack doctors, paramedical staff, etc. as the saying goes on "VaidyoRakshatiRakshita:", which means "if we protect doctors, they, in turn, will protect us".
Help and protect the periphery and tertiary level doctors, who are taking care of most of the non-COVID patients.
Conduct online CME (continuing medical education) to the doctors to keep them abreast regarding latest treatment guidelines, developments and protocols of COVID-19.
Conduct tests on all journalists on field as they are the potential spreaders of infection and they are more likely to get infected, because they travel a lot and keep meeting many people because of nature of their work.
Treatment protocols for COVID-19 and non-COVID patients--Prepare standard protocol for treatment of non-COVID patients.
Prepare different protocols of treatment of COVID-19 patients depending on the severity of illness like mild/moderate/severe, keeping the tough and long way ahead, as availability of vaccines and medicines for COVID-19 may take time. Have a planning for plasma therapy.
Forging private-public-people participation--The spread can only be contained with a strong health care system, with the blend of public and private health facilities backed by technology.
To unburden the Government setups, take private hospitals into the fold of our fight against COVID-19, and allow them to test and treat, duly capping on prices for testing and treatment, and advise them to take due precautions and sanitization measures.
Hospital facilities for treating COVID patients need to be increased and may be prepared for any eventuality.
Adequate doctors and nurses etc. need to be recruited and appointed in all identified public health facilities to make them functional.
Treatment may be decentralized, and more government hospitals may be roped in and a pool of doctors is to be maintained for deployment.
Creating awareness has paramount importance in containing the disease. The principle cardinals of preventing COVID-19, i.e., social distancing, wearing masks, hand washing and proper sanitization, shall be propagated by conducting continuous rounds of awareness programs, as these are the social vaccines.
Take care of tribals, children and old-aged. Encourage universal masking, taking Taiwan as a model; Create awareness among people that obesity is one of the major risk factors as observed in the USA. Take into the community the message that Meditation will be helpful (A study by ISHA Foundation, USA revealed that Meditation improved immunity).
The use of immunity increasing medicines in Ayurveda and Siddha which are potentially useful and have no side effects can be promoted.
Academics, examinations and others--Postpone examinations, including Medical PG, as life is more important than examinations.
Public and private Insurance companies may be asked to take the expenditure incurred by hospitals on PPEs, extra sanitation etc. into account, while settling claims by enhancing the rates of packages.
Enhance the facility of online consultation and telemedicine. Broaden the composition of the expert committee by including experienced epidemiologists, scientists, disaster management experts, public health experts.
Advise public representatives and other social persons to move with less number of people/followers by strictly adhering to all COVID precautions. Advise public to go for only emergency surgeries, but not elective surgeries. Include COVID-19 in the list of diseases covered in Aarogyasri.