AP ready to handle any surge in Covid cases

Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh government has said that it is ready to handle any eventuality in view of the sudden spurt of Covid cases in certain countries as the State has enough manpower, beds, drugs and oxygen.

An official release on Thursday said that during the last 50 days, over 30,000 samples were tested resulting in 130 positive cases while there were some cases of a new sub-variant of Omicron – XBB - which has similar features of Omicron.

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, on December 20, wrote a letter to all the states requesting them to ensure that as far as possible samples of all positive cases on a daily basis are sent to the designated INSACOG (Indian SARS-CoV-2 genomic consortium) genome sequencing laboratories that are mapped to the states and Union Territories.

To handle any surge in cases, the state is equipped with 12,292 general beds, 34,763 oxygen beds, 8,594 ICU beds, 1,092 paediatric ICU beds, 5,813 ventilators, 5,610 paediatric ventilators, 297 neonatal ventilators, 54,000 isolation/quarantine beds.

The state has established INSACOG genome-sequencing lab in Vijayawada. Mandatory positive samples from RT-PCR labs are being referred to this lab for further testing, said the release. Two doses of vaccination were completed for the above-18 age groups of population, including healthcare workers (HCWs) and frontline workers (FLWs) workers.

Also, 100 per cent precautionary dose is completed for HCWs and 93 per cent for FLWs, it further said. However, the government has not revealed what percentage of state's population had taken the booster shot. The number of people who had taken booster shots is abysmally low across the country. Doctors say that those who are vaccinated with two doses and had taken a booster shot can be considered comparatively safe as against those who did not take the booster dose of vaccine.

The state government has established 29 RT-PCR labs across the State to test the suspects while 10 Covid rapid test-kits were made available at Dr YSR Village Clinics to test any symptomatic persons. There are sufficient quantities of personal protection equipment made available such as sanitizers, masks, gloves and PPE kits, it added.