By Express News Service

HYDERABAD:Health Minister Eatala Rajender on Friday said that around 40 lakh people in the State are estimated to have developed Covid-19 antibodies, according to information recently revealed by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) while announcing the results of its second round of sero survey conducted across the country.

That means that around 40 lakh people about 11 per cent of the States population have been affected by Covid-19 and cured of the disease, Eatala said while inaugurating the Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine facility at NIMS Hospital in Hyderabad, which he said will prove to be a boon for poor cancer patients.

The facility will also help in bone marrow transplantation, he added. The Health Minister, who often criticises the ICMR for its handling of the Covid-19 crisis, on Friday blasted it for frequently changing its treatment guidelines.Telangana stuck to the claims it made during the start of pandemic on the approach taken to tackle the Covid-19 crisis, which he said have now been proved right.

Outpatient capacity to be increased at NIMS: Health Min

Earlier, Telangana said that convalescent plasma therapy is not very useful, costly medications such as Tocilizumab will not work and Remdesivirs usefulness will be limited. We had also said that treatments such as steroids will be good enough to treat Covid-19 patients. All these claims, backed by Gandhi Hospital doctors, have now come true, he said.

We had said that expenditure of `10,000 and quarantine is enough to provide Covid-19 treatment to patients with mild symptoms or those who are asymptomatic. ICU and oxygen beds will be required only for patients with severe symptoms, those with comorbidities or those who are poor and living in congested space. Even these claims have come true, he added.

Stressing that Covid-19 proves fatal in only limited cases, he said that now people would have to learn to live with Covid just the way they have learnt to live with seasonal ailments. Meanwhile, Eatala said that the outpatient consultation capacity at NIMS would be increased from 2,500 to 5,000 as the hospital was being provided `250 crore in the form of loan for construction of a new outpatient block along with a few critical care units. He also said that plans are being made on having separate entry and exit points at Gandhi Hospital for the treatment of non-Covid patients as hundreds of beds are lying unutilised. The Minister also said that the State government had planned to have four hospitals similar to NIMS, of which TIMS, Gachibowli, and AIIMS, Bibinagar, have materialised. A similar hospital is also being planned in Medchal-Shamirpet region, he added.

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Over 40 lakh people in Telangana have developed COVID-19 antibodies: Health Minister Eatala - The New Indian Express