Only 1,491 persons, who included students and teachers, tested positive for COVID-19 out of 5,12,890 people tested ahead of reopening of schools and colleges in the State, registering a positivity rate of 0.3%, the government claimed on Thursday.
“This is a reflection of the government’s effective strategy,” an official release said.
Andhra Pradesh was one of the very few States to reopen schools and colleges post the COVID-19 outbreak, the release said.
Teachers and students in as many as 39,111 schools had been tested. Out of 1.29 lakh teachers who were tested, 1,023 turned positive. Similarly, out of 2.08 lakh students who were tested, 458 turned positive.
Also, in 5,515 colleges, 1.40 lakh students were tested and only eight of them were infected. Among the 34,056 lecturers who were tested, only two tested positive, the release said.
“We went for large-scale testing, early detection and early treatment despite the numbers increasing as we believed in our strategy. The reason for such low positivity rate in educational institutions is because we tested as many as 93,33,703 people, detected 8,57,395 people, and successfully treated 8,33,980 people. The infection levels in the State in general are not as high as they are in a few other States. We will continue to work towards winning the way against the virus and not let complacency seep in at any point,” said Health and Family Welfare Commissioner K. Bhaskar.
A.P. topped the tests per million charts for over six months, and such large-scale testing caused rise in the cases detected to a peak of 10,000, it was stated.
At present, the tests per million ratio was at 1,74,788, which was highest among the States.