VIJAYAWADA: For the first time, Andhra Pradesh recorded over 1,000 Covid-19 infections in a single day. With 1,322 new cases, the overall tally shot past the 20,000-mark. Also, seven more deaths took the toll to 239. According to a media bulletin released by the State Command Control Centre, 16,712 samples were tested in the 24 hours ending Monday 9 am. District-wise, Guntur, from where 197 samples tested positive, recorded the sharpest spike in cases, followed by 171 in East Godavari, 141 in Anantapur and 136 in Kurnool; in all, seven districts reported more than 100 cases each.
Among the 1,322 new patients, 1,263 are from AP and 56 had returned from other states. Telangana returnees continued to top the list of positive cases reported among people returning from other states. Among the 56 such persons, 42 came back from Telangana, three from Tamil Nadu, two each from Maharashtra and Odisha, and one from Kerala. With the fresh additions, the overall number of people who travelled to other states but tested positive in AP now stood at 2,235.With three more expatriates contracting the virus, 419 foreign returnees, in total, have tested positive for Covid-19.
Meanwhile, as many as 424 more patients were discharged from hospitals, taking the total number of recoveries to 8,920 (7,252 are from AP, 1,433 had returned from other states and 235 had visited abroad).
With the continuous spike in infections, active cases too were on the rise as the state now has 10,860 patients still lodged in hospitals. Of them, 9,874 are from AP and 184 are foreign returnees.
The seven new casualties reported were from Srikakulam (2), Anantapur, Chittoor, Guntur, Krishna and Visakhapatnam. With a total of 10,33,852 samples tested so far, AP, as on Monday, stood in the third position in the number of tests conducted; it retained the top spot in conducting tests per million population (19,361).