Andhra Pradesh efforts on Coronavirus lauded

Amaravati: Scientists from California praised the 'excellent' work by Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Naidu in managing coronavirus pandemic. They conducted a research on 10,000 people who have been affected by the virus in the two southern states.

The paper published in the journal Science stated, "Although most Covid-19 cases have occurred in low-resource countries, little is known about the epidemiology of the disease in such contexts. Data from the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh provide a detailed view into SARS-CoV-2 transmission pathways and mortality in a high-incidence setting."

A 'Covid alert tracking system' set up by the state Disaster Management Authority helped the government and system is capable of keeping a tab of 25,000 people at a time. Awareness was created among the people and an extensive survey was done by ward and village volunteers in identifying the Covid-19 patients.

The writers in their article noted that aggressive testing, tracing and timely treatment has helped Andhra Pradesh to fight against the coronavirus. The state government has ramped up and decentralised its health system and named private hospitals for serious cases as Covid hospitals.

Males are more susceptible to coronavirus than females. Nearly 63 per cent of those who died due to Covid-19 had other serious illness. About 45 per cent of people who lost their lives had diabetes, hypertension, or both.

Special chief secretary (health) Dr K S Jawahar Reddy said, "More than 70 lakh tests have been done in the state. There has been a gradual decrease in the fatality rate". Most of the states in the country are following the strategies of Andhra Pradesh in controlling the spread of coronavirus, he added.