Covid Scare: Andhra Pradesh Govt Issues Five-Fold Strategy To Stop Virus Spread

Given the sudden spurt of cases in certain countries, the state of Andhra Pradesh is ready to handle any eventuality with sufficient manpower, several beds, drugs, and oxygen.

The government of Andhra Pradesh has issued directions to adhere to Covid appropriate behaviour to contain the transmission of infection. The state government has also issued a five-fold strategy, i.e., test, track, treat and vaccination in the wake of Covid outbreak in China.

A statement from the government said, "Given the sudden spurt of cases in certain countries, the state of Andhra Pradesh is ready to handle any eventuality with sufficient manpower, several beds, drugs, and oxygen."

The state has also released a list of Standard Operating Procedures for testing and vaccination.

Testing: The Government of Andhra Pradesh said that it has established 29 RTPCR Labs across the state to test the suspects. Ten COVID rapid test kits were distributed to Dr. YSR Village Clinics to test any symptomatic individuals. PHCs make the test kits available to teaching hospitals for timely testing. The state has established an INSACOG genome sequencing lab at Vijayawada.

Mandatory positive samples from RTPCR labs are being referred to this lab for further testing, the government said. During the last 50 days, 30,440 samples were tested, of which 130 were positive. The positivity rate is 0.42%. No hospitalisation was required for the 130 positive cases, and all were found negative after 7 days. The genome sequencing lab has further examined the 48 COVID-positive samples and reported a new sub-variant of Omicron, XBB, which has similar features to Omicron.

Vaccination : Two doses of vaccination were completed for the 18+ age groups of the population, including HCW and FLW. 100% of the precaution dose is completed for HCW, and 93% is completed for FLWs. 73% of the precaution dose is completed for the 60+ age group, and 33% is completed for the 18–59 age group population. The first dose of vaccination has been completed for children aged 12 to 14 and 15 to 17. The 15-17 age group receives 99.70% of the second dose vaccination, while the 12-14 age group receives 98.17% of the second dose vaccination.

The state has also provided an update on the availability of beds, drugs and oxygen to treat patients affected by COVID.

Bed Strength: To handle any surge in COVID cases, the following bed strength is readily available in the entire state, said the state government. 

There are multiple beds available for the patients including general beds (122920), oxygen beds (34763), ICU beds (8594), Paediatric ICU beds (1092).

The hospitals also have stock of ventilators (5813), paediatric ventilators (5610), neonatal ventilators (297), isolation/quarantine beds (54000).

Drugs: Enough personal protective equipment (PPE) such as sanitizers, masks, gloves, and PPE kits are available. Sufficient stocks of drugs are made available in all district drug stores, such as Ivermectin tablets, Apixabin tablets, Dexamethasone tablets, etc., including Home Isolation Kits.

Oxygen: Setup of 170 PSA plants to support 24,419 oxygen beds. Around105 power generators and 82 transformers have been kept ready for power backup. Nearly 74 LMO tanks and 25 cryogenic tanks have been purchased for the transportation and storage of liquid oxygen.

Oxygen Pipelines were laid to support 24,419 oxygen beds. Around 55,933 D-type oxygen cylinders are procured and 34021 oxygen concentrators are procured and made available to cater to COVID patients.