3-year old to 80-year old among 483 COVID-19 patients in AP

(Eds: Updates numbers)

Amaravati, Apr 14 (): The oldest person to testpositive for coronavirus in Andhra Pradesh was an 80-year oldwoman from Guntur while the youngest were two three-year oldgirls, one from Kurnool and another from East Godavaridistrict.

Of the total 483 COVID-19 cases registered in thestate from March 12 to April 14, 125 were female and the restmale.

And, 31 of those afflicted were under the age of 15years, data released by the AP government here on Tuesdayrevealed.

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

Of the 31 children under the age of 15, the number ofgirls were 19.

The Government of India authorities insisted that APtoo release the COVID-19 details like other states in atransparent manner and, accordingly, the state governmentfinally released some data on the pandemic thus far, officialsources said.

The government data revealed that, among the 483cases, 13 foreign returnees contracted coronavirus and 12 oftheir contacts got afflicted through human-to-humantransmission.

Another 33 cases were due to "other reasons."

The remaining cases were either Tablighi Jamaatcongregation attendees or their contacts.

According to the state government numbers, in all10,505 blood samples were tested till date and 10,022 of themturned negative.

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

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

The government volunteers and health workers completedtwo rounds of house-to-house survey, covering 1.31 crore ofthe total 1.46 crore households to identify prospectiveCOVID-19 patients.

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

Of these, 6,509 persons were kept in home quarantineand another eight in institutional quarantine, the governmentdata said.

Another 243 samples were sent for further testing.

While the government opened 338 quarantine centresacross the state, 5,864 persons were accommodated in them.

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

While the government provisioned for 444 ventilatorsin 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 1680in non-ICU rooms in these hospitals.

In the 13 district-level COVID-19 hospitals, only halfof the 445 provisioned ventilators could be put in place while2,292 more beds need to be added in the non-ICU rooms, thegovernment data said.

The data also said 4,799 doctors and 16,481paramedical and nursing staff were rendering COVID-relatedservices in government hospitals in the 13 districts, with thehighest 2,771 doctors and 9,624 paramedical and nursing staffin Visakhapatnam district alone. DBV