AP CM Instructs Officials To Screen All Families For COVID-19 In State

AMARAVATI: Following the instructions of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy the AP government started conducting comprehensive COVID-19 tests for all households in the state, and all the families across the state will be screened within 90 days.

The state government has taken his decision for early detection of coronavirus through conducting tests on a large scale, which will help to reduce the COVID-19 mortality rate by earlier detection of the virus so that doctors have much time to treat the infected persons and save their lives.

On Monday, CM instructed health department officials to perform COVID-19 screening for all households across the state within 90 days.

He advised the officials to carry out COVID-19 tests and collect the samples wherever necessary using 104 ambulances.

YS Jagan said that one ambulance should be made available per mandal in all rural areas. The screening team must include ASHAs (Accredited Social Health Activist), ANMs (Auxiliary Nurse Midwife) and village volunteers for the screening of households.

CM said that 108 vehicles should be equipped with all required medicines, even to treat people suffering from different health issues like blood pressure, diabetes and other chronic ailments.

YS Jagan advised the official to create awareness among and to remove the stigma present around the COVID-19 and instructed them to erect hoardings to this effect.

Now the state government is testing more than 15,000 samples per day on an average. Currently, the health department is giving much priority in testing people aged above 60 years, and people above 40 years of age and suffering from chronic ailments who are under high risk category for COVID-19.

The health department officials had prioritised the tests for people living in high-risk areas and in containment zones, along with this random testing of people working in industrial areas, market yards, people visiting temples and other crowded places is being carried out.

As of Tuesday, there are 7,858 active COVID-19 cases in the state, and 119 people have died from the virus. There are 4,173 active cases in the state.