The Andhra Pradesh government on Thursday, December 22, said it is ready to handle any eventuality in view of the spurt of COVID-19 cases in certain countries, as the state has sufficient manpower, beds, drugs and oxygen. An official release said during the last 50 days, over 30,000 samples were tested, resulting in 130 positive cases.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, on December 20, wrote a letter to all states, requesting them to ensure that samples of all positive cases are sent on a daily basis to designated INSACOG (Indian SARS-CoV-2 genomic consortium) genome sequencing laboratories that are mapped to the States and Union Territories. To handle any surge in cases, the State is equipped with 12,292 general beds, 34,763 oxygen beds, 8,594 ICU beds, 1,092 paediatric ICU beds, 5,813 ventilators, 5,610 paediatric ventilators, 297 neonatal ventilators, 54,000 isolation/quarantine beds, the release said.
The state has established INSACOG genome-sequencing lab in Vijayawada. Mandatory positive samples from RT-PCR labs are being referred to this lab for further testing, the release said. There are sufficient quantities of personal protection equipment made available to the public such as sanitizers, masks, gloves and PPE kits, it added.