AP launches app to keep track of people buying medicines for

: The Medical and Health Department of Andhra Pradesh on Saturday launched 'Covid Pharma', a mobile application to keep a track of people purchasing medicines over-the-counter (OTC) for cough, cold and fever from medical stores across the state.

Using the App, the respective pharmacies will have to take down details of persons, including their mobile number, making OTC purchase of medicines for such common ailments and report to the government.

"In the prevailing scenario, this will help us in easily tracing persons with any likely symptoms of coronavirus," Commissioner of Health Katamaneni Baskar said.

Even those buying those medicines with a prescription should be reported.

The medical shops association has consented to collect details of persons making such purchases and share with the health department for better monitoring, he said.

Meanwhile, the state government recruited 1,174 doctors on a temporary basis for a year to meet the emergent requirements in view of the prevailing coronavirus pandemic.

Most of these doctors would be posted in the COVID-19 hotbed districts like Kurnool, Guntur, Krishna and Chittoor, Baskar said.

"We have received over 1,800 applications for these posts and we have selected 1,174 from them," he added.