AMARAVATI: In a crucial decision to ease the burden on those going for COVID-19 tests, the Andhra Pradesh government on Thursday issued orders reducing the charge for coronavirus testing conducted by private laboratories. The government order stated that the charge, which was fixed at Rs 2,400 earlier for the samples forwarded by the state government, will henceforth be Rs 1,600.

Similarly, the Andhra Pradesh Medical And Health Department has also restricted the charge for those getting tested directly in the private laboratories from the existing Rs 2,900 to Rs 1,900. Giving out the reason for the reduction in charge, the state government said that the kits for the conduct of rapid COVID-19 tests are now abundantly available in the state. This has led to the fall in the test kit prices.

Keeping in view the necessity to conduct testing on a massive-scale, it was decided to transfer the benefit of price reduction straight to the people of the state, the order said.

Andhra Pradesh has been at the forefront in conducting maximum number of COVID-19 cases. As per the stats available on the website of the state medical and health and family welfare department, the state has so far conducted tests on 34,79,990 samples for coronavirus, which according to the state government is the highest across the country. The state has a total of 3,90,195 confirmed cases of which 94,209 are actives cases. A total of 2,92,353 persons have been cured and were discharged from various hospitals in the state. The state has witnessed a total of 3,633 deaths related to the dreaded COVID-19.