3-year to 80-year-old among 473 COVID-19 patients in AP

Amaravati, Apr 14 (PTI): The oldest person to test

positive for coronavirus in Andhra Pradesh was an 80-year-old woman from Guntur, while the youngest were two three-year-old girls, one from Kurnool and another from East Godavari district.

Of the total 473 COVID-19 cases registered in the state from March 12 to April 14, 125 were female and the rest male.

And 31 of those afflicted were under the age of 15 years, data released by the Andhra Pradesh government here on Tuesday revealed.

Among the children, there were two each of three, five and seven years, three each of eight and six years, a nine- year-old and six were 10-year-old.

Of the 31 under-15 children, 19 were girls.

The state government released some data on the insistence of the from the Centre, official sources said.

The government data revealed that among the 473 cases, 13 foreign returnees contracted COVID-19 and 12 of their contacts got afflicted through human-to-human transmission.

Another 32 cases were due to other reasons.

The balance cases were either Tablighi Jamaat congregation attendees or their contacts.

According to the state government numbers, 10,505 blood samples were tested till date of which 10,032 turned negative.

On Monday, the seven Viral Research and Diagnostic Laboratories (VRDL) opened by the state set a record by conducting 2,010 blood tests in 24 hours.

The seven labs have a total capacity to test 990 samples per day.

The government volunteers and health workers completed two rounds of house-to-house survey, covering 1. 31 crore of the total 1.46 crore households to identify prospective COVID-19 patients.

In the third round of survey, 1.45 crore houses were covered and 22,272 symptomatic cases were identified.

Of these, 6,509 people were kept in home quarantine and another eight in institutional quarantine, the government data said.

Another 243 samples were sent for further testing.

While the government opened 338 quarantine centres across the state, 5,864 people were accommodated in them.

The government also opened one state-level COVID-19 hospital each in Chittoor, Krishna, Nellore and Visakhapatnam, but they have not yet been readied to their full capacity.

While the government provisioned for 444 ventilators in these four hospitals, only 335 are available now, with 332 (out of 444) ICU beds.

Another 310 beds are to be added to the planned 1680 in non-ICU rooms in these hospitals.

In the 13 district-level Covid hospitals, only half of the 445 provisioned ventilators could be put in place while 2,292 more beds need to be added in the non-ICU rooms, the government data said.

It also said 4,799 doctors and 16,481 paramedical and nursing staff were rendering COVID-related services in government hospitals in the 13 districts, with the highest 2,771 doctors and 9,624 paramedical and nursing staff in Visakhapatnam district alone.