VIJAYAWADA: Only three districts in the State now have a weekly Covid positivity rate of over 5 per cent, as against over 10 per cent in seven districts in the week ending February 10. Health officials said they expected the figure in all districts to go down further in the weeks to come.
According to data for February 11 to 17 released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, only Visakhapatnam, East Godavari and Chittoor in the State showed a weekly positivity rate of over 5 but below 10 per cent. Visakhapatnam has the highest positivity of 9.13 per cent, followed by East Godavari (6.61 per cent) and Chittoor (5.48 per cent).
As per the data for January 10 to 16, Visakhapatnam had the highest weekly positivity rate of 28.05 per cent in the State. Five other districts showed a positivity between 5 and 10 per cent each. The rise and fall in the weekly positivity rate in the last 40 days represent the increase and decrease of Covid cases reported in third wave of the Covid pandemic. The number of daily Covid cases, which was just 176 on January 1, peaked at 14,440 on January 24. Since then, the trend started decreasing. On February 19, the State logged 425 new infections.
The active cases, which were just 1,227 on January 1, crossed the one lakh mark in just 25 days and peaked at 11,16,031 on January 30. Thereafter, the active caseload decreased at a steady rate and on February 19, they stood at 7,358. Similarly, the daily positivity rate witnessed a sharp fall after hitting a high of 36 per cent. Health officials, who are monitoring the trend, continue to remain vigilant, though Covid norms have been relaxed. Emphasis is still on the public following Covid Appropriate Behavior (CAB) . Further, people are urged to get completely vaccinated (two doses) against Covid.