Night curfew lifted in AP State

Vijayawada: Night curfew in Andhra Pradesh is lifted. It is deemed no more necessary by the State government as Covid-19 condition has eased providing a relief to the people.

The decision came after a review meeting on the situation by the Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy here on Monday. Covid-19 positivity rate had fallen from 17.07 per cent to 3.29 per cent in the State, the Chief Minister was told by the officials at the meeting following which he asked the officials to withdraw the night curfew that had put the commuters in particular to a lot of inconvenience due to the restrictions imposed on travellers.

However, the Chief Minister said that Covid precautions must be taken at all times, especially in the public and commercial spaces by wearing masks. He directed the officials to continue the fever survey and told them to conduct tests for those with symptoms. Also, he stressed on achieving 100 per cent vaccination in the State.

The Chief Minister directed the authorities to complete the entire recruitments in the Medical and Health Department at the earliest, ensuring that all the hospitals were enabled with proper workforce with zero vacancies. He instructed the officials to separate both administrative and medical responsibilities in hospitals and hand over the administrative work to those having expertise in that field.

The Chief Minister announced special incentives to specialist doctors and doctors working in tribal areas. In this context, the officials stated that 50 per cent of the basic salary could be given as an incentive to specialist doctors and similarly for doctors, 30 per cent of the basic pay could be given as a special incentive.

According to the Health officials, the pandemic was gradually decreasing, where only 794 patients are getting treated in hospitals while the number of positive cases in the State has come down to 18,929. Patients receiving treatment at hospitals is only 0.82 per cent of the total Covid active cases. The positivity rate has also fallen to 3.29 per cent from 17.07 per cent and there were zero cases in 9,581 village/wards secretariats.

On the vaccination front, the officials said that 3,90,83,148 people have been administered two doses of vaccination, and 39,04,927 were given a single dose.

While the target for the precautionary dose is 15,02,841, so far 11,84,608 people have been vaccinated. On a brighter note, the officials informed that 96.7 per cent of vaccination was completed in the above 45 years age group and similarly 90.07 per cent vaccination was done in people between 18-44 age group.

For teens between 15-18 years, 24.41 lakh have been administered with a single dose of vaccine, while 12.48 lakh have received their second dose of vaccine.