Andhra Pradesh govt to distribute 16 cr masks amid coronavirus COVID-19 scare

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Amaravati: The Andhra Pradesh government on Sunday (April 12, 2020) has planned to distribute over 16 crore face masks to the people of the state amid the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak in the country.

During a review meeting held here, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy instructed the officials to distribute 3 masks each to the 5.3 crore people in the state.

A total of 1.43 crore people were mapped during the third survey out of 1.47 crore people. During the survey, 32,349 people were referred to a medical examination by field staff. The doctors were asked to carry out tests on 9,107 among them. However, the Chief Minister directed the officials to conduct tests on all the 32,349 members.

"There should be a special focus in the zones where COVID-19 is prevalent," the Chief Minister said and sought details on the clusters, red zones, and hotspot areas in the state.

CM Reddy also instructed the officials to prioritize high-risk patients such as senior citizens, BP, diabetic, and other patients with ailments. 

To assess the level of virus infection in the state, the health department is going to conduct 45,000 tests across the state prioritizing the COVID-19 prevalent zones.

The Chief Minister further directed the officials to ensure fulfilling qualitative treatment and train every medical and paramedical personnel in the treatment of the fatal coronavirus.

As of 9 AM on Sunday, 417 positive COVID-19 are active in the state.

Among the active cases, 13 are foreign returnees, 12 are infected from the foreign returnees, 199 are Markaz returnees, 161 are those who came in contact with the Markaz returnees, and 32 cases are of those who returned from other states.

India has reported over 909 coronavirus confirmed cases in last 24 hours which have surged the total count of the positive cases to 8,447. 

Out of the 273 COVID-19 deaths across the country, at least 34 deaths have been reported since Saturday.