Andhra reports over 4000 new COVID-19 cases, highest daily tally in six months

Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday recorded the highest daily count of COVID-19 cases in the last six months as 4,228 people tested positive for the coronavirus on Tuesday. The active caseload also crossed the 25,000 mark in the state and reached 25,850, the highest since October 30.

A Health Department bulletin said that 1,483 patients had recovered while 10 had succumbed in a 24-hour period ending at 9 am on Tuesday. The total number of COVID-19 cases in Andhra Pradesh has now risen to 9.32 lakh, of which 8.99 lakh people recovered, while 7,321 lost their lives, the bulletin said.

Eleven districts reported fresh cases in three digits on Tuesday, with Chittoor on the top again at 842, followed by Guntur (622) and East Godavari (538). Visakhapatnam registered 414 cases, followed by Kadapa (334), Prakasam (284), Srikakulam (271), SPS Nellore (268), Krishna (261), Vizianagaram (130) and Anantapur (128). Kurnool reported 88 cases, while West Godavari saw 48 people test positive in the 24-hour period.

Chittoor also reported four COVID-19 fatalities, followed by SPS Nellore as two and Guntur, Krishna, Kurnool and Visakhapatnam at one each.

Meanwhile, the state received a total of 6.4 lakh doses of coronavirus vaccine since Monday night. While 4.4 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine came in from Pune, 2 lakh doses of Covaxin landed in Hyderabad and was transported to Andhra Pradesh. The vaccines were immediately dispatched to the 13 districts as stocks had dried up two days ago.

With the vaccine finally arriving, the Health Department has drawn up a schedule to complete the nationwide ‘Tika Utsav’ on Wednesday by taking up the programme in one village and ward secretariat each under the rural and urban primary health centres, so as to cover all eligible beneficiaries above the age of 45 years, an official release said.