AP imports one lakh test kitsWith RTKs, results can be obtained in just 10 minutes on whether or not a person carried virus

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jaganmohan Reddy undergoing the test for Covid-19, in Amaravati on Friday.

Testing Times

PTI 18.04.2020

Amaravati

The Andhra Pradesh government on Friday imported one lakh rapid test kits (RTKs) from South Korea to step up Covid-19 testing in the State.

The Andhra Pradesh government chartered a special flight to import the RTKs from Seoul directly to Vijayawada airport. The kits, manufactured by SD Biosensor of South Korea, were presented to Y S Jaganmohan Reddy at a high-level review meeting on Covid-19 on Friday.

With the use of RTKs, the result could be obtained in just 10 minutes on whether or not a person carried the virus. The State government placed an order for a total of one million RTKs and the first batch of one lakh kits was delivered on Friday.

The kits will be dispatched to all 13 districts in the next three days and doctors and other medical staff will be trained in their usage before they are put to actual use in a week. With the arrival of one lakh RTKs, the government now seeks to ramp up testing of Corona cases to 17,000 per day by next week, Special Chief Secretary (Health) K S Jawahar Reddy said.

“We started with 90 tests per day on February 15, with just one lab in the State. Now, with seven VRDL facilities, the testing capacity has gone up to 3,000 per day. With RTKs and TruNat machines, the testing capacity will increase to 17,000 a day in a week,” Reddy said. The Medical and Health Department is also going in for pooled sample testing, wherein one sample could determine the condition of five people.

“The ICMR has suggested this method where 100 tests will give the result of 500 people. We are initially doing the pooled sample testing in Vijayawada city,” the Special CS said. As part of community surveillance measures, (blood) sample collection, tracking and results would all be monitored online through a new MIS module. In the door-to-door ‘Syndromic Survey’ conducted by Asha workers and ANMs recently, over 32,000 people were found to have symptoms for Covid-19.

“In the next seven days, we will complete testing of all these 32,700 people,” Jawahar Reddy said.

Meanwhile, 38 more Covid-19 cases have been reported from AP in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of coronavirus cases in the State to 572.

While 13 cases were reported in Kurnool, six in Nellore, five each in Chittoor and Anantapur, four each in Guntur and Krishna and one in Kadapa, according to the latest bulletin by State Command Control Room, Andhra Pradesh.

The total number of positive Covid-19 cases in the state is 572. Till now, 35 patients have been discharged, while 14 deaths have been reported. Remaining 523 are currently undergoing treatment.