Another First For AP; Tops Country In COVID-19 Testing

AMARAVATI: Even as many states in the country are struggling to deal with the Herculiean task of detecting Coronavirus cases in early stage, Andhra Pradesh emerged at the top in conducting COVID-19 testing for those with suspected symptoms. The Medical and Health Department of Andhra Pradesh, in media release on Wednesday, revealed that the state has been able to conduct 830 tests per a million population. This takes Andhra Pradesh to the top of the table pertaining to states with most number of rapid testing for the dreaded virus.
According to the release, with 830 tests, AP was able to surpass Rajasthan which so far has the highest number of tests at 809 per million.
So far, about 41,512 people were tested across the state and of them, 40,699 have tested negative. On Tuesday alone, 5,757 tests were conducted, including 3,082 conducted on TruNat machines that are actually used for tuberculosis testing. The medical and health department in the release stated that no other state is able to conduct coronavirus tests on this scale.
AP's test numbers are, however, yet to be updated on the ICMR website despite the fact that the government has been constantly sending the data, the release added.
Until Monday, the rate of testing in the state was at 715 tests per million. The Andhra Pradesh government on April 17 imported one lakh Rapid Test Kits (RTKs) from South Korea to step up COVID-19 testing in the state.
These were part of the first batch of the total one million rapid testing kits ordered by the state government. With the use of the South Korean kits, the test result can be obtained in just 10 minutes which helps in determining very quickly if a person is infected with the virus or not.

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