COVID-19: Its a day of grim milestones for 3 southern states

It was a day of grim COVID-19 milestones for three southern states on Thursday as the case load in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu crossed the seven lakh and six lakh marks respectively while Kerala saw its tally breaching two lakhs.

It was a day of grim COVID-19 milestones for three southern states on Thursday as the case load in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu crossed the seven lakh and six lakh marks respectively while Kerala saw its tally breaching two lakhs. Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are among the high virus caseload states in the country, Maharashtra and Karnataka being the others.

Kerala which received accolades from many for initially curbing the spread of the contagion has seen a rapid spike in the number of infections in September, causing concern. Incidentally, the virus surge went past six lakh in Karnataka on Wednesday, while Telangana is inching closer to the two lakh mark with the tally rising to 1,93,600.

However, both Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have witnessed dip in the daily additions and active cases. AP's Covid-19 tally stood at 7,00,235 after 6,751 new cases were added in 24 hours ending 9 am on Thursday.

The state, which had on many occasions reported 10,000 plus daily cases, went past the six lakh mark on September 17. The overall toll in the state touched 5,869 following 41 fresh fatalities on Thursday, the government said.

The number of active cases was 57,858 in the state, which reported its first coronavirus positive case on March 12. Tamil Nadu, with an addition of 5,688 new infections, on Thursday, crossed six lakh cases while the toll mounted to 9,586 with 66 more deaths.

The tally of positive cases stood at 6,03,290, but the active cases were only 46,369, reflecting the high recovery rate achieved by the state, which reported its first positive case in March. Over a span of nearly three months, the state has added a whopping 5,00,569 cases after it had crossed the one lakh mark on July 3.

Tamil Nadu, which breached the five lakh cases on September 13, has added a little more than a lakh cases in the span of 17 days. Kerala, which has been witnessing a rapid spike in new cases in recent weeks, had crossed the one lakh mark on September 11, seven months after India's first case was reported from the state, when a Wuhan returned medical student tested positive for the dreaded virus.

The total cases touched 1.50 lakh on September 24 with the pace of the spread further increasing. While the Covid count touched 2,03,241, a total of 1,31,052 people have recovered, including 2,828 on Thursday.

The southern state had recorded in excess of 8,000 cases on Wednesday and Thursday..