Report to officials immediately in case of fever or breathlessness: AP Health Secretary

The coronavirus tally in Andhra Pradesh breached the 2-lakh mark recently. Addressing the coronavirus crisis in the state, Andhra Pradesh Principal Secretary (Health and Family Welfare), Dr KS Jawahar Reddy attributed the spike in the COVID-19 positive cases over the past two months to the movement of people with the easing of lockdown restrictions. Speaking to the media, Dr Reddy stated that the COVID-19 positivity level was less than 1% until May. He pointed out that the positivity rate witnessed an exponential hike from June to July, from 1.26% to 12.33%. The positivity rate of the current month is 16.24% (as on 7 August), he added. 

Sharing the current statistics of the state, the AP Health Secretary said that of the total 2,04,065 confirmed COVID-19 (as on Friday) positive cases, 84,654 were active and 1,17,569 patients were discharged. He further informed efforts are being made to bring the mortality rate down to less than one percent.

Urging people who are showing COVID-19 symptoms to immediately report to the authorities, Mr Reddy said, “Most of the patients who succumbed to the virus in the hospitals were brought in after the infection turned chronic. Many of the individuals are coming to us only after reporting severe breathlessness. I request citizens to be aware of the seriousness of the pandemic. If at all you are experiencing fever since the last four days or if your oxygen saturation levels (SPO2) drop below 95%, immediately reach out to the healthcare workers or dial toll-free number for tele-consultation.”

Elaborating the state’s testing strategy, the AP Health Secretary said that 23,62,270 samples were tested across the state until Friday. Apart from testing at the government-run hospitals, Mr Reddy informed that measures are being taken to collect samples at every Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC) in the state. In order to reach out to people from rural areas, mobile testing centres have also been set up.