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Andhra Pradesh: 40 children test positive for coronavirus

The children are among the 475 active cases under treatment at various COVID-19 centres in Andhra, as on April 15.

A corporation worker drives a sprayer with disinfectants through a street, as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus, during the ongoing nationwide lockdown, in Vijayawada. (PTI Photo)

At least 40 children in the age group of 3 to 17 years have tested positive for COVID-19 in Andhra Pradesh. They are among the 475 active cases under treatment at various COVID-19 centres in the state, as on April 15.

Officials said all the children contracted the virus from family members who attended the Tablighi Jamaat meeting at Delhi’s Nizamuddin in March. “The jamaat returnees were unaware that they were infected, and inadvertently passed it on to their family members, among them are several children,” an official said.

Another 124 of the patients are women. “In some cases, all the women members in the family were infected by one person; wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers,” a health department official said.

A further 36 patients are aged 60 and above.

With Andhra reporting 19 fresh cases on Wednesday, the state government has decided to double the COVID-19 testing capacity to 4,000 tests per day using TrueNat TB testing equipment. The state has also decided to extend a financial assistance of Rs 2,000 to poor families who are returning home from quarantine centers.

Meanwhile, in Hyderabad, 25 children have tested positive for the virus and are recovering at the Telangana capital’s Gandhi Hospital. “Some of them are from Hyderabad, others are from different districts who have been brought here for treatment,” hospital superintendent Dr P Shravan Kumar said.

Officials of the Andhra and Telangana governments have said none of the children are serious, have only mild symptoms, are responding to treatment well and will be discharged soon.

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