VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh reported 18 fatalities in the 24 hours ending Wednesday 9 am, taking the Covid-19 toll to 7,339. It is the highest number of fatalities since October 30, 2020 as 17 deaths were reported in the State on that day.Though the State has been witnessing a sharp surge in new infections since March this year, the number of fatalities was low till now.
Of the total 18 fatalities, Nellore reported four, Chittoor and Krishna three each, Visakhapatnam two, Anantapur, East Godavari, Guntur, Kurnool, Prakasam and Srikakulam districts one each. Barring Kadapa, Vizianagaram and West Godavari, fatalities were reported in all other districts.
Chittoor recorded the highest number of 899 fatalities, followed by Krishna with 695. The Covid toll in Vizianagaram is the lowest at 238.Meanwhile, the State recorded more than 4,000 new infections for the second consecutive day. While the daily count was 4,228 on Tuesday, 4,157 new infections emerged from 35,732 samples tested on Wednesday. The Covid tally in the State breached the 9.37 lakh-mark.
East Godavari reported the highest number of 617 new infections, followed by Srikakulam with 522. Apart from these two districts, Kurnool witnessed a sharp spike in Covid cases.
It reported 386 Covid cases on Wednesday, compared to 88 on Tuesday. Chittoor, Guntur and Krishna, which are the hotspot districts for Covid-19, saw a slight decline in daily count. West Godavari was the only district where the daily count was less than 100. The Covid tally of East Godavari surged past 1.27 lakh.
In all, 1,606 patients recovered from the virus, taking the total recoveries to 9.01 lakh in the State. Barring Vizianagaram and West Godavari, all other districts in the State have a caseload of more than 1,000. Chittoor has the highest number of 5,000-odd active cases, followed by Guntur with 3,400. West Godavari has the lowest caseload of 336.