Amaravati, Jun 11 (IANS): The Covid nodal officer for Andhra Pradesh, Arja Srikanth, said on Friday that aid in the form of materials, medicines and money worth Rs 17 crore poured into the coffers of the state government in the last 20 days, even as another Rs 18 crore worth aid is in the pipeline.

"Many organisations and individuals, both from within and outside the country, have come forward to assist and care (for) Covid patients in Andhra Pradesh. Most of the Covid aid is focused around augmentation of medical infrastructure, particularly in the area and rural hospitals," said Srikanth.

He said Biophore, Lupin, India Bulls and other companies have come forward with important medicines worth Rs 1.5 crore.

Likewise, Nirmaan has chipped in with 13x10 bedded ICUs, one each in district area hospitals.

According to the nodal officer, the ACT Foundation is providing 500 liquid medical oxygen plants which are being established in six district area hospitals in Phase I and the balance in Phase II.

Mastercard and Modulus Housing are providing mobile hospital units while central public sector enterprise NTPC is providing beds and hospital infrastructure.

Srikanth said 1,200 oxygen concentrators and 184 oxygen cylinders were also received, while over 1,000 more oxygen concentrators have been assured.

The official said that social media giant Facebook has granted advertisement credits worth $20,000 to the southern state's official Covid Facebook page 'ArogyaAndhra', disseminating awareness on the pandemic.

According to the nodal officer, 'ArogyaAndhra' commands a following of 1.63 lakh people on Facebook.

Incidentally, Facebook had also supported 'ArogyaAndhra' with advertisements worth $15,000 during the first Covid wave.

"Facebook also enabled us with the 'Covid alert option' which allows us to send alerts to all Facebook users in Andhra Pradesh which has more a reach of than 2 million," he noted.

Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka were the first Indian states to receive the alert option.