CCMB scanning Chittoor samples for new strains

Tirupati: The steep spike in the number of cases in Chittoor district is causing worry for the administration. The district reported 740 cases on Saturday which was the highest in the State. Following this, Health authorities have sent samples to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad to find out if there was any new strain which was resulting in a steep increase in the number of cases.

While around more than 300 cases were reported initially when the second wave started, the last three days have set a new record in the last six months. On Thursday, the district reported 465 cases followed by 496 on Friday and 740 on Saturday which is the highest in the State.

Tirupati urban and rural together take the lion's share of total district tally. On Saturday, these two mandals reported 437 cases.

In this backdrop, it was learnt that CCMB has taken up genetic study of the samples to know whether there is any presence of the UK or African strains or some other variants. They in turn will send their results to the Government of India.

Accordingly, five percent of the total samples which were tested positive during the week are being sent to the CCMB from Ruia and SVIMS hospitals. Ruia hospital Superintendent Dr T Bharathi said that they have been sending the samples as asked by the CCMB from around February end. However, CCMB has not given any feedback on their study so far.

SVIMS Director Dr B Vengamma said that they have been sending the five percent of samples that were tested positive in regular intervals.

Speaking to The Hans India, she said that they have been getting more admissions daily. As of now they are having about 230-240 Covid patients in the hospital.

Even the number of non-Covid in patients has also increased to about 700 now. She added that all the staff who were recruited during the pandemic last year were subsequently withdrawn. Since the cases are increasing again, they will be taken back shortly to extend quality healthcare.

On an average about one Covid death is reported per 100 cases. Since being a state Covid hospital, only serious cases are referred which are in need of ventilators and oxygen. The existing ventilators are sufficient but in view of the spike in cases, they have asked the District Collector for 20 more ventilators, she said.

Meanwhile, the total Covid cases have crossed 93,000 in the district while the death toll has reached 880. About 90,000 people have recovered from the infection and about 3,000 active cases are there now in the district.