VIJAYAWADA: The YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led Andhra Pradesh government has created another record of sorts by reaching a new milestone in testing coronavirus samples in the state. It emerged as one of the very few states in the country to have conducted four lakhs and above COVID-19 tests as of Wednesday.

As on Wednesday, a total of 4,03,747 persons were tested for the dreaded virus. In the last 24 hours, the state had conducted tests on 8,066 samples. Incidentally, only Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra are ahead of Andhra Pradesh in the number of coronavirus tests conducted in their respective states.

But considering the population of Andhra Pradesh which is very low compared to these states, AP conducting 4 lakhs and above tests assumes greater significance. Based on this parameter, AP emerges as the ‘Number 1 state’ in the country in COVID-19 testing. On an average, 7,419 persons are being medically screened and tested per every million population in the state.

Already, the state is at the top of the list in the country when it comes to COVID-19 recovery rate. The rate of people recovering from the dreaded disease in Andhra Pradesh is significantly higher than the national average. The coronavirus recovery rate in the state is at 64 per cent while the national average in this parameter is only 48.51.

Despite everyday reporting of new cases, the infection rate is also remarkably low in Andhra Pradesh. It is right now around 0.96 per cent as against the national average of 4.96 per cent.

Seeing the proactive testing in the state, the Central government has even issued directives to all the states to employ TrueNat machines for the virus testing. Similarly, it issued advisory to the other states to emulate Andhra Pradesh in keeping tele-medicine services available extensively for the public.