A six-member Central team that arrived here on Friday interacted with officials of the Medical and Health Department, and enquired about the COVID-19 frontline workers who contracted the disease. It also sought details of paid quarantine facilities in the State and the death rate.
Replying to the queries, the officials said that 67 medical and health staff and 89 government officers contracted the virus. They included employees of the Police and Revenue departments, sanitary workers, ward / village volunteers and ASHA workers.
Free quarantine
“The government is providing quarantine facilities free of cost. Also, the government plans to set up paid quarantine facilities for the NRIs,” the officials told the team members, and claimed that the death rate in the State was 2.07%.
Making a presentation on the situation in the State, Medical and Health Commissioner K. Bhaskar said the government was taking measures to contain spread of the virus.
Scale of testing
“Andhra Pradesh is ahead of others with regard to scale of testing. About 10,000 tests have been conducted in a single day a couple of days ago. So far, 1.84 lakh samples have been collected, and 23,539 are pending collection. If found defective, the samples are being drawn again. Klia tests are being conducted in Kurnool, Krishna, Guntur and other districts. If Klia tests proved positive, RTPCR tests are being conducted for confirmation. In all, 12,246 Klia tests have been conducted. Of these, 89 tested positive and RTPCR tests have been conducted for validations,” he said.
Apart from ensuring medical and health facilities, the government had been conducting a survey to identify persons with COVID-19 symptoms. Persons with suspected symptoms were being sent to the quarantine facility, he said.
“The government is gathering data from drug stores through the pharmacy app. It has opened fever clinics in the containment clusters. COVID care centres have been set up near COVID hospitals. As many as 14,095 beds have been made available at the care centres. Apart from MBBS doctors, specialists are also made available,” the officials told the team members.
Of the six members, Dr. Vivek Adhish and Dr. Rishi Gailang would tour Krishna district, Dr. Sanjay Sadhu and Dr. M. Dhobe Kurnool, and Dr. Bobby Paul and Dr. Nandini Bhattacharya Guntur district.
