The State has witnessed a drastic change in the COVID-19 outbreak in the first month since it reported the first-ever case of a foreign returnee on March 12.
Though the outbreak was largely remote with only six of the 13 districts reporting at least one case and a total of 11 cases until the first 15 days, that is, as of March 26. The scenario completely changed in the last couple of weeks.
Currently, four districts — Kurnool, Guntur, Nellore and Prakasam — together account for about 62% of the total 420 cases as of Saturday and two of them, Kurnool and Guntur, are racing towards the 100 mark with a constant increase in cases by the day.
The first positive case was reported in Nellore and during the first two weeks only 11 cases were reported across the State. However, post-March 30 when Telangana revealed that six of the Delhi returnees, who attended the Tablighi Jamaat meeting, died due to coronavirus, the State realised the threat as there are hundreds of Delhi returnees in the State.
Until then the State was only focussing on foreign returnees and COVID-19 patient contacts showing symptoms and among others. Three persons connected to the Delhi meeting also tested positive in Guntur and Prakasam districts.
Extensive testing
From March 31, the government began extensive testing of persons who had been to Delhi and their close contacts. The very next day it found 67 positive cases. More than 6,500 samples were tested in the past 12 days and on an average of 31 new cases have been reported every day.
Though the State continues to report more and more new cases compared to the highest number (67) of cases reported in a single day (April 1), the rate of new cases has apparently come down considering the increased number of samples being tested. Most of the new cases are coming from Kurnool, Guntur and Nellore which have turned into hotspots.
The State has begun rapid sample testing by collecting samples of random persons through special drives and mobile sample collection kiosks. The government claims only 81 of the 676 mandals have been affected by the outbreak and Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy suggested relaxation of lockdown in those unaffected mandals to Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently. The State has declared 134 red zones.
As of Sunday, 12 persons have recovered and seven persons died due to COVID-19. In most cases of death, coronavirus infection was confirmed only after the person died with symptoms.
