AP records 7,998 fresh COVID-19 cases, tally now 72,711

Till date, 37,555 patients had recovered and been discharged from hospitals while the state now had 34,272 active cases, it added. East Godavari district is now the major coronavirus hotbed in AP as the contagion has been spreading at a rapid pace over the past week in particular.

A staggering 7,998 fresh Covid-19 cases were added in a day in Andhra Pradesh, pushing the states overall tally to 72,711 on Thursday. Also, 61 new casualties were reported, taking the death toll to 884, according to the latest bulletin.

In the last 24 hours, 5,428 Covid-19 patients were discharged from hospitals after they got cured, the bulletin said. Till date, 37,555 patients had recovered and been discharged from hospitals while the state now had 34,272 active cases, it added.

East Godavari district is now the major coronavirus hotbed in AP as the contagion has been spreading at a rapid pace over the past week in particular. It registered a record 1,391 cases in a day and crossed the 10,000 mark in the aggregate tally.

East Godavari also saw 14 Covid-19 deaths, the single largest number in a district in a day so far. Guntur district recorded 1,184 and Anantapuramu 1,016 new cases in the last 24 hours, according to the bulletin.

Guntur and Kurnool districts reported seven Covid-19 deaths each, Krishna and Srikakulam six each, Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram five each during this period. The state claimed to have conducted a record 58,052 sample tests in 24 hours, including 25,618 rapid antigen tests, resulting in 7,998 positives.

Overall, 14,93,879 tests were completed in the state so far at the rate of 27,975 per million population even as the infection positivity rate climbed further up to 4.87 per cent. The recovery rate, however, showed an improvement to 51.65 per cent after 11,922 patients were discharged from hospitals in the last two days.

The mortality rate remained at 1.22 per cent, according to government statistics.