The number of COVID-19 positive cases in the State has climbed to seven with Visakhapatnam reporting reporting its third one on Monday.
The patient, a 25-year-old male, landed at the Delhi airport from the U.K. on March 17 and reached the Visakhapatnam airport the same day. He travelled to his house in Thagarapuvalasa in a car along with his father and developed symptoms two days later and was admitted to hospital on March 21, as per the health bulletin.
Patient recovers
Meanwhile, a 24-year-old youth, who contracted COVID-19 after returning to Nellore from Italy nearly two weeks ago, was discharged from the Government General Hospital upon being cured.
The youth, who is the first COVID-19 patient in the State, was admitted to hospital on March 9 and tested negative after 14 days of treatment as per the protocols. His close contacts, including father, mother, driver and friends, also tested negative.
Meanwhile, the government identified more foreign returnees and accordingly, the number has gone up to 14, 038 of which 2,426 have completed the 28-day observation period.
As many as 11, 560 foreign returnees are under home isolation and 52 have been admitted to hospitals.
Test results of eight samples were awaited and 166 samples, including those of close contacts of positive patients, have tested negative till date.
Aggressive strategy
The Health Department has revised the testing strategy following the guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research.
As per the revised strategy, all hospitalised patients with severe acute respiratory illness, fever, cough and shortness of breath will be tested for COVID-19 irrespective of their travel history.
Also, asymptomatic direct and high-risk contacts close to confirmed patients would be tested once between Day 5 and Day 14 after first contact. Direct and high-risk contacts include healthcare workers.
In addition to that, all symptomatic healthcare workers would also be tested.
