Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has on Friday directed the officials to ensure supply of essential commodities and continuity of agricultural operations.

As the total number of Coronavirus postive cases increased to 161 in the State, Reddy, in a review meeting on Friday, asked officials to strictly comply with guidelines on containing the pandemic keeping in view the sudden hike in cases linked to participants who attended the Tablighi Jamaat meeting in New Delhi earlier this month. Of the 161 positive cases reported in the state, 140 were related to the event, it was told in the review meeting.

A total of 1,085 persons attended the event and 946 among them are now in AP. Samples were collected and tests have been conducted on them. Results are out for 881 and 108 were detected positive and 65 test reports are awaited.

About 626 individuals who came in contact with the participants at the events were also tested and 32 were detected positive and 335 test reports are yet to come, said officials.

Two new testing centres are now functional in Guntur and Kadapa and one more in Visakhapatnam will start work from Monday.

Currently, the testing labs have a total capacity to conduct 700 tests daily and that will be increased to 900 after coordinating with private testing labs.

Chief Minister instructed the officials to ensure social distancing at all markets were people may gather.

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