Andhra state minister for Tourism, Avanthi Srinivas Rao on Monday tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The minister's office, in a press release, stated that Avanthi and his son Sai Sandeep, both were diagnosed to have COVID-19.
The Andhra minister urged his followers and people to be not worried about his health condition as he is doing well. He asked people to not to try meeting him and his son personally while stating that his office will function for the public convenience and people can reach out to officials for any grievance.
Several public representatives in both the Telugu-speaking states have tested positive for the virus and have recovered as well. Earlier in August, state Education Minister Adimulapu Suresh had tested positive for the virus while state Deputy CM Amjad Basha and his family members tested positive in July. Both of them recovered later.
Telangana State Finance Minister Harish Rao has also tested positive for the virus and is undergoing treatment.
Meanwhile, Andhra is continuing to see a surge in new COVID-19 cases. According to the state media bulletin for COVID-19 on Monday, as many as 7,956 new positive cases were reported after testing 61,529 samples. So far the state has a total of 5,75,079 COVID-19 cases. The state currently has 93,204 active cases. As many as 4,76,903 people in the state have recovered from the disease.
Meanwhile, the death toll in the state has reached 4,972. According to the state COVID-19 command control room, the state so far tested 46,61,355 samples and found 5,75,079 cases to be positive. The government claimed that Andhra Pradesh is at the top spot in the country for testing, with a capacity of 87,291 tests per million.
The state currently has a positivity rate of 12.34% against a recovery rate of 81.23%. Andhra has a 0.85% mortality rate.