Andhra Pradesh gets two more COVID-19 testing labs

Amaravati: As the number of Coronavirus cases is on the rise in Andhra Pradesh, two new COVID-19 testing centers in the state will start operating from 3 April.

The VRDL lab in Guntur will start testing samples from Friday, while another lab in Kadappa will be functional from 4 April, state nodal officer Dr. Arja Srikanth said. Apart from these, another lab is also being constructed in Vishakhapatnam which will be functional soon, the state government said in a statement. Dr Srikanth said all labs in the state are working 24-hours, adding, the two new labs will help the state test more samples which have increased from 450 to 570 samples per day.

As of now, the state has four VRDL labs: Siddartha Medical College in Vijaywada, Sri Venkateswara Medical College in Tirupati, Regional Medical College in Kakinada, and one in Anantapur.

Meanwhile, the special principal secretary of the health department, K.S Jawahar Reddy, held a review meeting regarding the availability of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE). During the meeting, it was announced that 2,500 PPE’s will be supplied to COVID-19 hospitals across the state.

As of 2 April, the state has recorded 135 Corona-positive cases. The number has increased in the last 24 hours as many from Andhra had attended a religious congregation in Delhi. Thirteen Indonesians patients, who had attended the religious event, had travelled to Karimnagar by train, and later had tested positive.