VIJAYAWADA: Three more Covid-19 deaths and 52 fresh infections were reported from Krishna district on Wednesday.
With the new cases, the tally reached 1,519, 10 days after the district crossed the 1,000 mark. The number of those recovered stood at 614, leaving 839 active cases.
The district has reported 66 deaths so far. Officials attributed the surge to increase in testing.
While 46 new cases were recorded in Vijayawada alone, Machilipatnam’s Inagudurupeta, Circle Peta, Godugupeta and Adarsh Nagar accounted for four, and Nuzvid two infections. During a video conference with Chief Secretary Neelam Shawhney, district collector A Md Imtiaz said 1,03,877 samples had been tested for the coronavirus so far; of the 70,685 samples tested in June, results of 7,388 were yet to come.
“1,620 samples are being collected from Vijayawada, Gudivada, Machilipatnam and Nuzvid in a day,” he informed.
The chief secretary, who suggested that samples of symptomatic persons be collected in 24 hours of identifying them, assured that three more RT-PCR equipment would be given to the district to further ramp up sample testing.
After municipal commissioner V Prasanna Venkatesh observed that people above 60 years of age with health complications were going to private hospitals, Shawney suggested the civic body to coordinate with the hospitals and gather the patients’ details with the help of ANMs and ASHA workers.
Covid special officer Siddharth Jain directed Venkatesh and joint collector (welfare) L Siva Shankar to gather details of the elderly in two wards and collect samples from them. Speaking at a review meeting later on the day, Imtiaz observed that severe cases were being treated in State Covid hospital (New GGH, Vijayawada).
Focus on treatment of elderly and frequently check oxygen levels and pulse of patients with the help of optametre, he told health officials, and added that a TrueNat laboratory would be arranged at the hospital in near future.
At present, the city has nine active clusters. He also said the results were being messaged to people on their phone numbers and, in case, a person was not communicated the same, he/she should contact village/ward volunteers and give the latter their Aadhaar number.