Even as the number of COVID-19 positive cases is beginning to witness a spike in the third week of the nation-wide lockdown, the good news is that Andhra Pradesh is able to test more persons than before.
The State has scaled up its testing capacity to nearly 1,000 per day with the addition of more virology labs.
Testing of persons who show symptoms such as high fever, dry cough and running nose, or those who are related to persons who had already tested positive, has emerged as a potent tool in the fight against the disease.
States with better testing capacity have fared well in containing the spread of COVID-19. Though Andhra Pradesh lags behind Kerala, which has tested more than 7,000 samples so far, it is not far behind as it has completed testing 5,960 samples, out of which 348 turned out to be positive.
A month ago, the State had just one standard virology lab at SVIMS, Tirupati, with a capacity to test 180 samples per day. Now, there are labs at Siddhartha Medical College, Vijayawada (180 samples per day), Regional Medical College, Kakinada (180), Government Medical College, Anantapur (180), GMC, Kadapa (90) and Government Medical College, Guntur (180).
“We have made significant progress in scaling up our testing capacity, and we will soon reach the 1,000 tests per day-mark,” State Nodal Officer, COVID-19, A. Srikanth, told The Hindu on Thursday.
Rapid testing kits
With the government launching the rapid testing kits manufactured at the A.P. Medtech Zone Limited in Visakhapatnam, the State is headed to take a lead in testing for COVID-19. The kits will give results within one hour of testing. Initially, about 2,000 kits can be made per day.
The State is also improving on providing quarantine facilities to those who tested positive. With 322 centres, with a combined bed strength of 56,893, the situation looks normal. But if the disease peaks around the end of this month, the number of centres have to be enhanced.
Most of the Rayalaseema districts do not have the kind of hospitals in the private sector when compared to the coastal districts. In Guntur district, there are advanced medical facilities in NRI General Hospitals and Katuri Medical College in the private sector, but not many districts can boast of such facilities.
Ventilators needed
But the State seems to be lagging behind when it comes to ventilators. On the higher side, there are not more than 1,000 ventilators across the State. The Medtech Zone in Visakhapatnam is also expected to start manufacturing of ventilators soon.
