Amaravati, Jul 29 (IANS): Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday directed officials to pay special attention to the equipment procured as part of Covid containment measures.

Reviewing the Covid situation in the state, Reddy instructed officials to arrange oxygen concentrators at primary health centres and also set up a special department to maintain the newly-procured oxygen concentrators, cylinders, and oxygen generation plants.

"Pay special attention for the maintenance of equipment procured as a part of Covid containment measures and appoint special staff as per the requirement," he said.

He said that new staff members should be based on the area of the district and number of hospitals, and trained as per requirement.

The Chief Minister also told officials to add training courses in polytechnic and ITI education for developing skills in oxygen plant management, electrical, AC repair, plumbing, and other allied fields in hospital maintenance.

"Take measures to set up oxygen generation plants in 100-bed private hospitals at first and extend to other hospitals later. The state government is providing 30 per cent subsidy in establishment of oxygen generation plants and also giving relaxation in power tariff," he said.

Reddy directed officials to prioritise vaccinating teachers first.

Meanwhile, officials informed the Chief Minister that 43.3 lakh vaccine doses were allotted to private hospitals in May, June and July but only 5.2 lakh doses were used.

At this, he said that he would write a letter to the Central government seeking reallocation of those unused doses to the state government to expedite the vaccination process.