COVID-19 | Officials focus on mass testing in containment zones

Target to complete tests for 90% of population in the next few days, says Collector

September 06, 2020 11:03 pm | Updated September 07, 2020 08:04 am IST - VISAKHAPATNAM

Restricted movement:  People coming out of a containment zone opposite Fishing Harbour in Visakhapatnam.

Restricted movement: People coming out of a containment zone opposite Fishing Harbour in Visakhapatnam.

Ever since the first COVID-19 positive case was recorded in the last week of March, the district administration has put its focus on testing, especially in the containment zones. The testing in the GVMC limits began on April 6 and from 11 tests on that day it has gone up to about 2.75 lakhs, as on date. The Health Department, GVMC and the district administration have been focussing on testing and it will continue in the coming days.

“We are now testing close to 6,000 persons on a daily basis and that is why there is a spike in the cases,” said P.V. Sudhakar, District COVID Officer and Principal of Andhra Medical College. Going by the statistics, after 2.75 lakh tests, mostly in the containment zones, the number of positive cases is close to 41,000, which indicates that about 15% have tested positive.

According to District Collector V. Vinay Chand, the target set by the administration is to complete tests for 90% of the population in the containment zones or clusters in the next few days.

As on date there are about 717 clusters in the district, with 52 very active and 42 active clusters.

At present, all the 72 PHCs in the 72 GVMC wards are operational, which include the 29 max centres, and all have been provided rapid antigen kits for testing.

The testing centres have been decentralised and the medical officers at the PHCs and ward secretaries have been provided apps to give live updates.

Apart from the PHCs, which act as sample collection centres, the Government Hospital for Chest and Communicable Diseases (as been provided nine Truenat machines for tests and the VRDL at KGH has five RTPCR machines. “People can approach their local PHCs or can come to VRDL or GHCCD for tests in the urban areas,” said Dr. Sudhakar. “In the rural and tribal areas, every CHC (community health centre) has been provided rapid antigen kits. The kits are replenished on a daily basis or as and when required on demand,” he said. This apart, the area hospital and district hospitals are Narsipatnam, Araku, Paderu and Anakapalle have Truenat testing facilities. “In total we have about 32 Truenat machines in the district, including nine at GHCCD,” said Dr. Sudhakar. “After completing the round of testing at the containment zones, our next focus will be conducting random tests in non-containment zones. It is because of the transparency in the testing that we see a spike in the district and across the State,” he said.

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