Asserting that the battle against COVID-19 is going to be a long- drawn affair, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy said Andhra Pradesh stood first in the country in conducting tests.
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Mr. Jagan pegged the number of tests at 1,396 per million population, and the total number done so far at 74,551.
Addressing the public through video-conference from his camp office on Monday, he said infected persons should not be treated as untouchables lest they should suffer from the social stigma, and insisted that no one was safe. “It is like any fever but those with low immunity need to be extra cautious,” he added..
Nine viral research and diagnostic laboratories and 44 TrueNat facilities had been set up in the State since the outbreak of COVID, the CM said.
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Mr. Jagan said 63 mandals were in the red zone and 54 and 559 mandals were in orange and green zones respectively and five critical care hospitals were established.
He observed that 80% of the infected persons might never exhibit any symptoms and only 14% would require hospitalisation. The positivity rate in the red and orange zones was 1.61%.
The Chief Minister said of the 40,000 beds, 25,000 were single isolation ones and adequate number of personal protective equipment were distributed to doctors, paramedics and others serving the masses at great personal risk.
Telemedicine centres
The government had set up 14,410 telemedicine call centres apart from filling doctor, nurse and lab technician posts.
“We have to make a concerted effort to stave off the crisis. Remember, the virus is here to stay for a long time. We have to live with it,” he observed.