Hyderabad: In view of the rapid increase of COVID cases & fatalities in the GHMC limits and particularly the south and western parts of the city post unlock-1, we as a social service & grass-root level advocacy group dealing in public health, hereby request you to impose immediate curfew in south and west of the city for the next 3-4 weeks at least, for the following reasons:
- The spread of the disease is rampant, while 85% plus cases are reporting asymptomatic with mild disease but 15% or so are symptomatic requiring hospitalization and 5% within this are turning critical.
- A large section of suspected cases are not getting tested, fear going to Govt Hospitals and cannot afford expensive pvt health care.
- Hence are seeking treatment from local clinics/physicians and are being taken to hospitals in the last minute in critical conditions.
- Shortness of breadth (SOB) with falling Oxygen levels (desaturation) is the common complaint.
- 1 in 3 above 45 years in old city has single or more than one morbidity like diabetes, hypertension etc making them highly vulnerable group.
- As a result the case fatalities are higher than what is being made official bcoz they are not tested for SAR-COV2
- Presently pvt hospitals treating covid are running full capacity & are out of bound for middle class and weaker sections
- For those who can afford, there is no information publicly available through a Control Room/Helpline system to inform public about availability. Hundreds of patients are scouting for hospital beds in pvt sector and losing precious time.
- Gandhi Hospital the nodal centre is only taking positive patients and emergency cases are running from pillar to post.
- Due to ramp up in testing across general population the waiting time for COVID results has further increased-delay in results is causing delay in admission and treatment.
- For those who are seeking home isolation care there is acute shortage of Oxygen supplies in the city.
Therefore till you ramp up beds with central line oxygen supplies in Govt Hospitals and capacity is further enhanced in pvt hospitals mainly in old city area by adding more middle level pvt hospitals, we request you to impose 24 hours curfew in the above said zones immediately.