AMARAVATI: The Andhra Pradesh government which has proven to be always a step ahead in the implementation of anti-COVID-19 measures, has now come with an initiative to help track a coronavirus infected patient with the use of a GPS tracker. Announcing this during a chat with the media at the Secretariat here on Thursday, Minister for Industries and IT Mekapati Goutham Reddy said that Andhra Pradesh is the only state in the country to make use of the GPS module for tracking coronavirus patients. He said that the state government would soon launch a pilot project of the GPS module.

Goutham Reddy said that the state government had already initiated deliberations with some firms over the manufacturing of the GPS module. Briefing the media about its functionality, the minister said that the GPS module would be attached to the COVID-19 patient, which will help track the movement of the person continuously. “This will help the authorities zero in on the patients quickly even if they escape from quarantine centres,” he said.

This module will also go a long way into the future in helping the medical staff track the patients, Goutham Reddy said, adding that state government had exempted industries and stores in green zones from lockdown restrictions in the state.

Referring to the poisonous campaign being carried out by the opposition Telugu Desam Party leaders on Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s observations on COVID-19, he stoutly defended the chief minister’s statement. “I support Chief Minister YS Jagan’s observations on COVID-19. It is an undeniable fact that the dreaded coronavirus cannot be eliminated so soon and we have to live with it by taking adequate precautions. As there is no vaccine available to treat COVID-19 disease so far, whatever the chief minister said is absolutely true,” he said.

Goutham Reddy lashed out at Chandrababu Naidu and the TDP leaders for indulging in cheap politics during the current crisis time. He said the leaders of the opposition party, who have lost the trust of the people, are vehemently trying in desperation to tweak every word being spoken by YS Jagan and distort the facts.

The minister sought to remind the TDP men that Andhra Pradesh actually tops the ranks in the country in terms of COVID-19 testing. On an average, AP has carried out 1,772 tests per million population which, he said, is even higher than the average of the rest of the country.

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