There is a steady increase in the number of new positive cases in Kurnool and Anantapur districts as the COVID-19 samples testing capacity is ramped up in the last three days and on Tuesday while Kurnool district saw 10 new positive cases reported, there were three new cases in Anantapur district.
With the new results, the total number of cases in Kurnool district went up to 184 with four persons discharged and five dead, the remaining 175 were getting treated in three COVID-19 hospitals, District Collector G. Veerapandian said at a press conference on Tuesday evening. “The Government General Hospital, Kurnool, was designated as State COVID-19 hospital on Tuesday and it currently had 50 ICU beds, 200 non-ICU beds with 17 patients currently getting treated,” Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy said at the press conference.
The Finance Minister said the government will shortly enhance the ICU beds capacity to 200 and non-ICU beds capacity to 800 so that it can take critical care cases from Anantapur and Kadapa districts also.
Currently, patients were being sent to Tirupati or Nellore for better treatment. All patients above 60 years of age would be housed at the GGH in Kurnool, the Minister said.
In Anantapur, the KIMS Saveera and RDT hospital have been made dedicated COVID-19 Hospitals and normal cases are being treated at the GGH.
At both the places (GGHs), triage — the assignment of degrees of urgency to wounds or illnesses to decide the order of treatment of out patients coming — is done and all COVID suspect cases are sent to those two hospitals in Anantapur, while the normal cases are treated at the existing GGH. “In Kurnool, 12 private hospitals were identified and each hospital will now treat patients referred from the triage at GGH and none should approach a private hospital for any ailment,” the Minister added. At the 23 quarantine centres, 1,259 persons were looked after and 48 of them were discharged on Tuesday after following the testing protocol, the District Collector said.
In Anantapur with the three new cases reported, 36 positive cases have been recorded till 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
While three persons died, four were discharged (including two on Tuesday) after testing negative on two consecutive days and 29 persons were being treated at both the COVID-19 Hospitals.
