VIJAYAWADA: Asserting that the state government is focussing on testing and tracing Covid-19 cases and reducing the mortality rate, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday sought the Centre’s support to ramp up medical infrastructure in Andhra Pradesh.
“Andhra Pradesh is a newly-formed state. We do not have Tier-I cities like Hyderabad, Bengaluru or Chennai, which have all the infrastructure and hospitals. The Centre should help in ramping up medical infrastructure in the state,” Jagan told Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the video-conference held by the latter with chief ministers of various states.
Jagan said the state is adopting a focussed strategy by which tests for coronavirus are being conducted in clusters to identify positive cases at the earliest.
“We were able to identify positive cases and extend medical aid, thereby decreasing the mortality rate. Besides giving timely treatment, this strategy has helped contain the spread of the virus,” he explained.
Elaborating on the steps taken by his government, Jagan said when the first positive case was identified in Andhra Pradesh in March, there were no virology labs in the state, and samples had to be sent to Pune. But now, all 13 districts of the state have labs and all districts are well equipped to treat Covid-19 patients.
“So far, we have done 25,34,304 tests, of which 2.35 lakh samples returned positive,” he said.
The Chief Minister added that at least two lakh people, including medical and police personnel, are playing a key role at the ground level to conduct tests, identify the infectees, trace their contacts and provide treatment. Because of this, the mortality rate in AP could be contained to less than 0.90 per cent, he said.
Jagan further said that as per the state’s strategy, people who test positive for coronavirus should not be made to wait for more than 30 minutes to get admitted to hospital, and no one in need should be denied a test for the virus. “Samples are being collected with the help of more than 100 mobile units, and also at more than 1,500 centres,” he pointed out.
If rapid antigen tests are included, sometimes, more than 70,000 tests are conducted per day, the Chief Minister said, and added that 9,000-10,000 new cases are recorded in the state on a daily basis. Of them, 85-90 per cent are from clusters.
Jagan pointed out that Andhra Pradesh has 138 private and government hospitals with 37,189 beds to treat Covid-19 patients. To treat infectees with mild symptoms, the state has 109 Covid Care Centres with 56,000 beds. “Before the Covid-19 outbreak, government hospitals had just 3,286 beds with oxygen supply, but the number has now gone up to 11,000. In the past three months, 7,000 oxygen beds were made available,” he said, and added that more than 32,000 doctors, paramedical staff and technicians are helping treat patients in the state.The CM also said 1088 ambulance services were introduced to meet emergency needs.
25 lakh tests done in AP
CM Jagan pointed out to the PM that so far, 25,34,304 tests have been done in AP, of which 2.35 lakh samples returned positive.
Mortality rate below 0.90%
CM Jagan said at least two lakh people are playing a key role at the ground level to conduct tests, identify infectees, trace contacts and treat patients, and because of this, the mortality rate in AP is less than 0.90%