The Andhra Pradesh Government imported one lakh rapid test kits (RTKs) from South Korea to ramp up COVID-19 testing in the state. A special chartered flight carried the kits from Seoul, South Korea to Vijayawada Airport on Friday. Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy launched the newly received kits at a high-level meeting. The current consignment of one lakh kits is the first batch of one million kits that were ordered by the State Government. The rapid test kits will be dispatched to all thirteen districts in AP within the next three days.
In the world’s fight against COVID-19, testing samples has been a major inhibitor that slows down the process. With newly acquired rapid test kits in AP, the test results can be achieved within just ten minutes – significantly cutting down the identification time cycle. The RTKs have a sensitivity of 83% and have been used in South Korea extensively. They have also received approvals from ICMR and Drug Controller General of India.
Doctors and medical staff across the state are currently being trained to operate the kits efficiently. Bhaskar K, Commissioner of Health & Family Welfare & Dr Mallikarjun A, CEO of YSR Arogyasri advised doctors in AP to start using the rapid test kits expeditiously.
Special Chief Secretary (Health) K S Jawahar Reddy said that with the newly imported kits, the authorities plan to increase the number of tests done to 17,000 a day by next week. Stating that the authorities started off with just 90 tests per day in February, the Secretary revealed that current testing capacity is 3,000 tests a day. The authorities are positive that with the deployment of TruNat machines and RTKs, the testing capacity will increase significantly.
As on 18 April 2020, AP has reported 603 cases out of which 546 active cases are in treatment. Meanwhile, in Visakhapatnam, three more patients have been discharged, taking the total number of recovered patients to 13. There have been no more cases reported in Visakhapatnam after 5 April 2020
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