Plan to conduct 6,500 COVID-19 tests in Krishna a day

VIJAYAWADA: Though Covid-19 cases have declined in Vijayawada and Jaggaiahpet, there is a surge in cases in Machilipatnam rural, Nuzvid and Gudivada clusters in Krishna district. District Collector A Md Imtiaz, briefing Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney about the Covid-19 situation in Krishna during a video conference on Thursday, said, “We are making efforts to reduce the mortality rate. The current mortality rate in the district is 1.62 per cent, whereas the recovery rate is 85 per cent. In the district, 92,116 tests are conducted per million, whereas 4,825 cases are positive per million. At present, 56 per cent of samples are collected from urban areas and 44 per cent of samples from rural areas,” he said.

Imtiaz also explained the measures taken to contain the spread of coronavirus in the district. He also suggested measures to the collectors of other districts to combat Covid-19 effectively. “In the beginning, Krishna figured among top three districts in the State in Covid cases. Now, it is at the bottom of the list with the lowest number of active cases,” he said. 

As part of the measures to reduce the number of cases in rural areas, the Collector said that at least 6,500 tests will be conducted per day in the next fortnight. Krishna reported 367 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, pushing the tally to 22,636. The district recorded five deaths, taking the toll to 367. A total of 2,882 patients are undergoing treatment, he said.