COVID-19 spread must be controlled without lockdown: Andhra CM

The spread of COVID-19 must be controlled without a lockdown, said Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday in light of the increasing cases, while directing officials to focus on testing and vaccinations.

COVID-19 spread must be controlled without a lockdown, said Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday in light of the increasing cases, while directing officials to focus on testing and vaccinations.

In a video conference with District Collectors and SPs on the prevailing COVID-19 situation and vaccination, the Chief Minister said that the only permanent solution against COVID-19 is vaccination.

"Vaccination is the only permanent solution for COVID-19. The government is trying to get more doses to the state as the regulatory authority on vaccines is Central government," he said.

Reddy further informed that 1.55 crore tests have been conducted in the state since last year and 9.37 lakh cases have been tested positive.

"The positivity rate in our state is 6.03 per cent while the recovery rate is 96.19 per cent. The national average recovery rate, meanwhile, is only 88.9 per cent. The death rate in the state is 0.78 per cent, it is 1.24 per cent at the national level. From December to April, the positive rate was 7.77 per cent. While the rate of infection and positivity is higher in Chittoor followed by Srikakulam, Visakhapatnam, Krishna, Guntur and Nellore districts," he added.

In the meeting, he further directed district collectors to hold review meetings with Joint Collectors every day on the COVID-situation and preparedness of hospitals.

"108 hospitals are empanelled for COVID treatment and out of 15,669 beds in those hospitals, 4,889 beds are occupied and directed the officials to increase the availability of beds in the hospitals," he said while instructing officials to ensure that oxygen facilities, infrastructure, food quality in hospitals, station, medication, doctors, para-medical staff are adequate in hospitals.

13,500 beds are available in Covid care centres and they should be increased to 50,000 and the patients with no separate room for isolation in their house should be shifted to a COVID-care centre.

As many as 6,096 new COVID-19 cases and 20 deaths were reported in Andhra Pradesh in the last 24 hours, the state health department informed on Thursday.

With this, the total tally of positive cases in the state now stands at 9,48,231, including 35,592 active cases, 9,05,266 recoveries and 7,373 deaths.

( With inputs from ANI )