Vijaywada: Four years after Andhra Pradesh reported its last Covid-19 death, two people succumbed to the virus, and four others tested positive in Kadapa district on Thursday, prompting the local medical and health department to step up surveillance in the region.
Three of the four people who tested positive for the virus are in home isolation, while the fourth, who is experiencing mild symptoms, has been admitted to a local hospital in Kadapa. “The patient is being treated in a Covid-19 special ward at the hospital,” sources said.
“All four patients tested positive for Covid-19 during RT-PCR tests conducted at the Kadapa virology laboratory,” the sources said, adding, “The four positive cases are from different localities in Kadapa. They had also received two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, while one of them had taken a booster dose too.”
Of the two deaths, the first occurred on June 28 at CMC Vellore. A 60-year-old patient, who was initially admitted to SVIMS in Tirupati and later shifted to CMC Vellore, died while undergoing treatment and subsequently tested positive for Covid-19 through an RT-PCR test. In the second case, a 43-year-old patient receiving treatment also succumbed to the infection after testing positive for the virus.
“The patient who died at CMC Vellore had diabetes, kidney disease and other comorbidities, while the health records of the second deceased were not available,” the source said. “Based on the symptoms exhibited by the four patients, the Omicron variant is suspected to be responsible for the infections,” the source added.
Samples of the deceased patients were sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, for genome sequencing to determine the variant responsible for the infection. It may be recalled that AP last reported a Covid-19 death in 2022.
