Nearly 42% of Andhra Pradesh’s COVID-19 cases were reported in the last week alone. Between July 28 and August 4, the state recorded 73,984 positive cases of the novel coronavirus. In fact, for three days over the past week, the daily cases crossed the 10,000 mark. While there has been alarm over Andhra’s sudden spike with the opposition accusing the government of failing to contain the virus, state officials that TNM spoke to emphasised that there is no need to panic about the numbers. They argued that reporting higher numbers would, in fact, help the state in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr Arja Srikanth, Andhra Pradesh State Nodal Officer for COVID-19 argued that identifying more cases is helpful in fighting the coronavirus in the long run. He said, “When more cases are identified and the numbers are put out transparently, then it helps us identify containment zones and gives us the required input to divert doctors, medicines and Auxiliary Nurse Midwives to the areas where more cases have been reported.”
As of August 4, there are 169 containment zones in Andhra Pradesh. The figures keep changing based on the numbers reported on a daily basis.
Questions of the Andhra Pradesh government’s transparency flies in the face of its diktat to districts to not put out separately COVID-19 numbers. Up until May, several districts in Andhra had issued individual COVID-19 bulletins. This was in addition to the state Health Department’s daily bulletin for figures from across Andhra. However, this was discontinued in May with only one consolidated bulletin now being released.
Dr Srikanth, however, said that the directive to district officials was a matter of streamlining the process. “There was a lot of confusion. Those who test positive in Trunat and rapid tests need to be tested again for a final confirmation. After this is done, it has to be uploaded onto the ICMR portal and then the bulletin is put out. There is a lot of coordination involved. To avoid unnecessary confusion, we streamlined the process,” said the state Nodal Officer.
Officials also attributed the huge rise in COVID-19 cases to an increase in testing. Andhra Pradesh has carried out more than 21 lakh tests in the state so far. On an average, the state has been carrying out around 58,000 tests on a daily basis over the past week.
Katamaneni Bhaskar, Health Commissioner of Andhra Pradesh said that negative reporting and alarm over the increasing number of positive cases will only discourage districts and states from increasing testing. He said, “The more cases you discover as positive it is better. More testing will only result in more numbers. If you are going to make an issue about the rising numbers, you are then discouraging states from stepping up its testing. Andhra does very high testing on a daily basis. We test especially those who are in the high risk zones and are interacting with many people on a daily basis.”
PV Ramesh, a retired IAS officer, who was till recently the Additional Chief Secretary to Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, said, “When you see that the numbers are going up, there is a tendency to report less. Whether high or low, the numbers need to be reported because unless you know the extent of the problem we will never be able to address it. The natural tendency is to hide the numbers when it starts going up. This is because they feel it is due to their inefficiency that the numbers are going up. There is always a fear about being transferred and suspended.”
When asked if the actual numbers are way higher than the numbers being reported now, PV Ramesh said, “Fair reporting of figures is happening in Andhra Pradesh. I don’t believe under-reporting is happening. If the state was hiding, you wouldn’t have seen such a high number of cases in the bulletin, on a daily basis.”
Andhra Pradesh has reported a total of 1604 deaths due to COVID-19 as per the bulletin released on August 4. The state’s case fatality rate is 0.90% - far lower than the national average of 2.09%.
Dr K Rambabu, General Physician and Professor of Medicine, who is also the state COVID-19 coordinator said that the number of deaths can be controlled by identifying positive cases early. He said, “There is no reason to under-report in Andhra Pradesh. We are okay when the numbers go up, because it is going up only because we are testing in large numbers and we are successfully isolating all those who test positive. This is helping in securing others as those identified will not infect others. By identifying early, the mortality rate can also be controlled.”
The opposition in Andhra, however, said that the increase in COVID-19 cases reflects the government’s poor handling of the pandemic. Nara Lokesh, TDP’s General Secretary who is also an MLC, told TNM, “The soaring numbers is proof that the government has failed in the 4Ts- tracing, tracking, testing and treating. The situation needs to be handled with more clarity and transparency. The Chief Minister initially tried to play down the deadly virus. The government adopted a lackadaisical approach. Even now the CM can be seen at public gatherings without a mask. This can have a demonstrative effect. People are paying the price of the government’s negligence today.”