Amaravati, April 3 With COVID-19 infrastructure in place, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy is now intensifying efforts to aid people of the state, stranded in other states. He has also called for effective monitoring and quarantine measures for the persons who returned to the state from the Tablighi Jamaat event at Delhi in March.
With the majority of COVID-19 cases in the state having a Tablighi Jamaat connection, the Chief Minister called for locating and enforcing monitoring measures efficiently.
Of the 161 positive cases reported in the state, 140 are connected to the Tablighi Jamaat event, it was revealed at the review meeting chaired by the Chief Minister.
The state government has calculated that 1,085 people had attended the event, of which, it has located 946 persons in AP. While samples have been collected and tests, the results of 881 samples indicate that 108 samples are COVID-19 positive. Test results of 65 Delhi-returnees are awaited.
Officials said that nearly 626 persons who came in contact with the event attendants have also been tested, of whom, 32 tested positive. Results of 335 tests are yet to come, said officials.
Reddy also directed that an officer be sent to aid Telugu people stranded outside the state in places such as Mumbai, Gir, Varanasi, Goa, Ajmer, and Tamil Nadu.
Meanwhile, the door-to-door survey in the state is continuing at a brisk pace, officials said. As many as 1.28 crore households of the 1.45 crore households have been surveyed.
The state is also raising its COVID-19 testing infrastructure. In addition to four functional test centres, two new testing centers, in Guntur and Kadapa, have begun operations functional and testing capability will be further strengthened with the addition of a third centre at Visakhapatnam, from Monday.
With this the testing capacity will cross 900 tests per day in the state.
Ministers Alla Nani, Mopidevi Venkataramana, Botsa Satyanarayana, C.S. Nilam Sawhney, DGP Gautam Sawang, Special Chief Secretary to the Ministry of Health Jawahar Reddy and other officials were among those present at the review meeting.
( With inputs from IANS )