Andhra Pradesh completes one crore coronavirus tests

VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh on Sunday crossed a major milestone as it completed one crore coronavirus confirmatory tests even as the active caseload fell below 10,000 for the first time in close to five months.The first Covid-19 testing laboratory in the state was set up at the Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences (SVIMS), Tirupati on March 7. In the next 10 months, 15 more labs, excluding the four private ones, came up. 

During the initial days of the pandemic, samples taken from foreign returnees were sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune and testing labs in Hyderabad. By June, the state, however, had 150 labs working 24x7, and their present capacity is 35,860 tests per day. Also, the state is conducting rapid antigen tests. All put together 70,000 to 75,000 tests (approximately) are being conducted per day even as the government is aiming at 100 per cent RT-PCR tests by December 31 without reducing the current testing numbers.

Andhra Pradesh is one of the top five bigger states that conduct the most number of tests after Uttar Pradesh (which tested 1.89 crore samples by Sunday), Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Karnataka.In terms of tests per million, the state, however, stands on top by testing 1.87 lakh people out of every 10 lakh population. 

According to the medical and health department officials, the State followed a decentralised model in sample collection. About 1,519 facilities acted as sample collection centres and they ranged from teaching hospitals to primary health centres. Apart from these centres, mobile RRT teams covered every nook and corner of the state with containment zones as the priority. For better access to the citizens in interior areas, 122-state owned AP State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) were converted into mobile sample collection centres. 

All the testing facilities, including the mobile ones, were equipped with PPE kits, waste disposable bins and cold boxes to preserve the samples collected.District-wise, East Godavari has conducted the most number of tests (9.67 lakh), followed by 8.92 lakh in Kurnool; Vizianagaram has tested the least number of samples (5.44 lakh).

Meanwhile, 620 cases emerged out of the 54,710 samples tested in the 24 hours ending Sunday 9 am. Eleven districts reported less than 100 infections each, with Kurnool and Srikakulam registering the lowest 15 new cases each. The one-day spike in Covid cases was the highest in West Godavari (107); Guntur with 101 new positives followed.

With over 3,700 people recovering in a day, active cases now stand at 8,397 out of the total 8.67 lakh infections reported so far. Three districts, which have more than 1,000 active cases, are contributing to nearly half of the active cases. Also, seven more perons succumbed to Covid-19. Two casualties were reported from Krishna and Visakhapatnam each; and one each from Chittoor, Guntur and West Godavari.