Active COVID-19 cases further decline to 88,000 in Andhra Pradesh
VIJAYAWADA: COVID-19 tally of the State crossed the 6 lakh-mark on Thursday, but on the brighter side, the total recoveries also went past the 5 lakh-mark, bringing down the number of active cases to less than 90,000. Now, the total number of Covid-19 cases in AP stood at 6,01,462. The State recorded one lakh new cases in the last 10 days. On September 7, the State crossed the 5 lakh-mark and by Thursday, the total Covid count breached the 6 lakh-mark. AP stood second in the country in the number of Covid cases, while Maharashtra topped the list with more than 11 lakh cases.
According to the Media Bulletin released by the State Command Control Room, more than 77,000 samples were tested in the 24 hours ending at 9 am Thursday. Of them, 8,702 tested positive for the virus. East and West Godavari districts continued to witness the virulent spread of coronavirus, while other districts, barring Chittoor, are showing a gradual decline in the number of cases. East Godavari recorded the day’s highest of 1,383 positive cases, followed by West Godavari with 1,064 cases and Chittoor with 905 cases. All the other districts recorded less than 800 cases in the last 24 hours. With 526 new cases, the Covid count of Vizianagaram crossed the 30,000-mark.
On the brighter side, 10,712 people recovered from Covid in the last 24 hours, taking the overall number of recoveries to 5.08 lakh. This brought down the number of active cases to 88,197. Prakasam has the highest number of 12,411 active cases, while Krishna got the lowest number of 2,882 active cases, who are undergoing treatment in hospitals and home isolation.
Chittoor recorded the most number of deaths in the last 24 hours with 12 persons fell victim to the virus of the day’s toll of 72, followed by Prakasam with 10, Kadapa with seven, Guntur, Kurnool and Nellore with six each, East Godavari and Krishna with five each, Anantapur, Visakhapatnam and West Godavari with four each, Srikakulam with two and Vizianagaram with one. Chittoor topped the list with a Covid toll of 564 in the State. Prakasam toll crossed the 300-mark, while Srikakulam touched the 300-mark in the last 24 hours.
Another call centre to come up
Vijayawada: With a spurt in Covid-19 cases, the workload on the 104 call centre has increased. Hence, the State government has decided to set up a dedicated call centre to carry out various Covid activities such as testing, contact tracing, transportation of positive cases to quarantine centres or hospitals, maintenance of hospitals and data compilation . The proposed new call centre needs 20 medical officers, 13 district coordinators, three shift managers and 50 data entry operators. While medical officers will be paid `45,000 per month, shift managers will get `20,000 and data entry operators `15,000. District coordinators, who will be hired as interns, will receive a stipend of `6,000 per month