Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday logged 43 Covid-19 deaths in 24 hours, taking the overall death toll above 400. Another 1,916 fresh infections, in a single day took the coronavirus aggregate tally to 33,019, with 15,144 active cases. Many cases are surfacing from rural areas like Srikakulam, Vijayanagaram, Anantapur and Nellore. It clearly indicates that the novel coronavirus has spread through the rural areas, which is a major cause of concern for the state. The healthcare system has already been tested to the very brink as Andhra recorded the highest-ever number of deaths – 37 on a single day on Monday, broke its own record on Tuesday with 43 deaths in a span of 24 hours. In the last two days alone 80 people have succumbed to this deadly virus.
The rise in rural areas is being pinned on negligence in collection of samples and lack of knowledge among the lower level medical staff. This lack of information has resulted in the wastage of more than two lakh swabs and Covid-19 testing kits.
The ex CM of Andhra Pradesh Chandrababu Naidu has alleged that the government negligence in testing has caused this breakdown in the healthcare system. He says that Andhra has the lowest recovery rate in this country and it remains the 5th worst-hit state in India. In the past one month, Covid-19 cases went up by 91.2% and death rate increased by 70%. Chandrababu said, “The government has wasted thousands of samples and test kits in every district. In just Prakasam district, 27,000 samples and kits were wasted. Nearly 2 lakh units were wasted all over the state. It created chaos and confusion in the people. Deputy CM Amjad Basha got discharged from Tirupati General Hospital and got himself admitted in a private hospital in Hyderabad. It means that no one trusts the state healthcare system.”