NE NEWS SERVICE
AMARAVATI, APRIL 16
A British tourist Culley Clive Bryant, while leaving the quarantine centre after getting permission from UK embassy to travel back home, thanked the Officials and staff of the quarantine centre at Tirupati for their humble treatment during his stay at the quarantine centre and told that he would visit Lord Venkateshwara temple again and would meet them for sure.
Culley Clive Bryant is a Geography professor who came to India in October 2019. After visiting Lord Venkateshwara temple in Tirumala, he was bound to stay in Tirupati due to Covid -19 lock down and he was sent to quarantine as he was a foriegn national on March 24. He was tested negative for two times and though he completed 14 days period in quarantine centre, he continued to stay as there was no accommodation and transport facilities due to lockdown.
After getting permission from UK embassy, he is scheduled to travel to Ahmedabad from Hyderabad at 7 a.m. on Friday (April 17) and to his country from there at 7 p.m. by British Airlines. He is relieved from the quarantine centre with the permission of District Collector and Superindent of Police (Urban). He has written a letter by hand thanking everyone for the facilities at the quarantine centre, a release from CMO said.
Andhra Pradesh is fully geared to fight COVID-19, says Chief Secretary
The state is equipped with 1,35,000 PPEs, 1,16,000 N-95 masks, and around 1500 to 2,000 ventilators and there is no need to worry, said Special Chief Secretary Jawahar Reddy.
Speaking to media here on Thursday, Jawahar Reddy said that Andhra Pradesh is in top five amongst the other states in the country in testing for COVID-19.
The community surveillance and the cluster containment are the two major strategies being followed by the state government in fighting against COVID-19. With the complete efforts put by the medical, paramedical, and emergency staff the government is doing its best at these tough times.
So far, 154 cluster containments are identified and with the newly reported 32 cases, the cluster count would be varied on Friday after analysis. The government is conducting the maximum number of tests to identify positive cases in the state, he added.
On the COVID-19 tests conducted in the state, he said as of April 7, around 3,930 tests have been performed across the state and the average then was 78.6 tests for one million population in the state. As of Wednesday, around 16,555 tests were conducted and between April 7 and April 15, the state has conducted 12, 625 tests in the seven laboratories that are functional 24 hours. Moreover, another two other laboratories; one in SV Medical College in Tirupati and another in Kurnool medical college. The work is in progress and these two laboratories will also be functional soon.
So far, in India 2,74,599 tests were conducted and the national average is 198 tests conducted for every million population in the country. Amongst the states, Rajasthan has conducted 37,860 tests and the state average is 549 test/million population in the state, in Kerala 16,475 tests were conducted and the average is 485/million, Maharashtra 50,882 tests were conducted and the average is 446/million. In Andhra Pradesh 16, 555 tests were conducted and the state average is 331/million. That means the average has increased from 78.6/million population on April 7 to increased 331 tests/ million on April 15, he said.
In the last three days, 3,000 samples were tested and trying to scale up the testing capacity using 265 available TruNat machines and 18,000 TruNat testing kits. These machines were set up at 49 centers in 13 districts. AP is one of the three to four states that is using TruNat testing kits in identifying COVID-19 positive cases. In the next one week, the target is to conduct 17,000 tests. The maximum number of tests helps in identifying the maximum number of positive cases and that will be helpful in demarcations of red zones and hotspot areas after lifting lockdown on May 3, Jawahar Reddy added.
