Andhra Pradesh races ahead of Telangana in number of Covid tests

VISAKHAPATNAM: Andhra Pradesh and Telangana reported their highest single-day spike in Covid-19 cases on Thursday with 553 and 920 infections, respectively. However, there is a stark contrast between the two Telugu-speaking states in terms of case positivity rate. While Andhra Pradesh conducted 19,085 tests with a 2.9% positivity rate (553 cases) on Thursday, one in four tested in Telangana were diagnosed with the disease on Thursday. The state had screened only 3,616 people in the same time.
The positivity rate stands at 1.45% in Andhra Pradesh, with 7.91 lakh tests detecting 11,489 cases, while the positivity rate in Telangana is over 16%, after conducting 70,000 tests to identify 11,364 cases. One in every six people so far tested in Telangana has been found positive for the virus.
The World Health Organisation (WHO), in an advisory released in May, stated that one of the indicators that the disease is under control is when less than 5% of the samples test positive for Covid-19, for at least two weeks.
Andhra Pradesh, which collected its first Covid-19 sample in February, had to send it to Pune as the state had no Covid testing centre at the time. The first lab was set up in the middle of March in Tirupati with a testing capacity of 90 samples per day. The state now has the highest number of government testing centres, with 13 viral research and diagnostic laboratories and 48 Truenat labs.
The spread of the virus was contained on the back of a number of measures, such as ramping up testing, contact tracing, door-to-door surveys, identifying vulnerable/high-risk persons and augmented treatment facilities.
As of Friday morning, Andhra Pradesh had conducted over 7.91 lakh tests, translating into screening nearly 14,800 people per million population. This is the highest among all states.
Even before cases crossed the 100-mark in April, the government identified six lines of hospitals in each district for dedicated treatment of Covid-19 patients/suspected cases. Now, the government is adding more hospitals and beds, anticipating a further spurt in cases while care centres are being set up in each district to treat mild cases.
Special chief secretary, health and medical department, Dr KS Jawahar Reddy, said the state has been spending about Rs 3 crore every day on Covid-19 tests alone, with each test costing about Rs 1,250. “Large-scale testing will help identify and isolate patients. This has helped in ensuring no large-scale outbreak in the state,” said Jawahar Reddy.