ANDHRA RAMPS UP ITS COVID TESTING FACILITY, CROSSES 1 CRORE TESTS

Andhra Pradesh on Sunday reached a significant milestone as the number of Covid-19 tests in the state crossed the one-crore mark. The health officials said the state has so far tested 1,00,17,126 samples of which 8,67,683 tested positive and 91,49,443 negative. The landmark was crossed with 54,710 new tests during the last 24 hours.

Andhra Pradesh stands first in India among big states with 1,87,587 tests per million population (98,004 national average). According to officials, 52,38,479 were RT-PCR tests, 7,41,711 truenat tests and 40,36,936 rapid tests. With extensive testing and timely treatment the mortality rate stands at 0.81 percent which is lower than the national average of 1.46 percent.

The state government has worked as per an action plan to contain the spread of Covid-19 and utilised the services of village volunteers at the best for community surveillance and monitoring health conditions. Starting with zero testing facilities, in no time, the State government ramped up its health infrastructure and established 150 testing laboratories by June along with dedicated hospitals for treating Covid patients. Apart from 15 testing facility centers, Covid-19 tests are being conducted in 4 private labs, 44 VRDL labs, 90 Truenat labs, 6CBNAT, 5NACO and 5 CLIA labs.

Andhra Pradesh has followed decentralised model of Sample Collection Centres. About 1519 facilities acted as the Sample Collection Centres ranging from Teaching Hospitals to Primary Health Centres. Mobile RRT Teams covered the nook and corner of the state prioritising Containment Zones.

To provide better access to citizens for testing, 122 State owned VERA & APSRTC buses were set up as mobile units for Sample Collection Centres equipped with all required Covid facilities and digitize the data of samples collected in a real time basis to MSS portal and citizens receive acknowledgement soon after sample is collected and report is also sent to their registered mobile immediately after the sample is processed.

A campaign was held to create awareness on mask wearing with an aim of ensuring 100% mask compliance in rural and urban through IEC, Mass Media, Digital Media. The state government has distributed three re-usable masks to each person in the state to promote its usage.