VIJAYAWADA: Amid the surge of new infections, Andhra Pradesh ramped up its Covid testing capacity by conducting over 86,000 sample tests in the 24 hours ending Thursday 9 am. With the fresh additions, the state has tested 1.63 crore samples for Covid-19.
According to the latest media bulletin issued by the State Command Control Room, 86,035 samples were tested between Wednesday and Thursday 9 am, from which 14,792 returned positive after which the total number of infections stood at 10.84 lakh. Seven districts reported more than 1,000 new infections with the highest of 1,831 in Chittoor closely followed by Srikakulam (1,829). West Godavari reported the lowest of 596 cases.
The single-day spike in infections was also high in Anantapur, East Godavari, Kadapa, Srikakulam, Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram even as Chittoor, Guntur, Nellore and Prakasam districts reported fewer cases than on Wednesday. With the fresh additions, Anantapur’s tally went past 80,000, Kadapa’s 62,000, Nellore 80,000, Srikakulam 66,000, Vizianagaram 49,000 and Visakhapatnam 78,000.
Also, there was a jump in the people recovering in a day. In the 24 hours, 8,188 people got cured as against 6,400-odd on Wednesday. The overall recoveries went past 9.62 lakh even as the active cases continued to surge and reached 1.14 lakh.
Chittoor has the highest number of active cases, over 15,000, followed by 14,000-odd in Srikakulam. Six districts have more than 10,000 active cases. Meanwhile, 57 more fatalities took the overall deaths to 7,928. The highest of seven fatalities were reported from Anantapur, Vizianagaram and West Godavari districts followed by six in East Godavarai, five each in Chittoor and Visakhapatnam, four each in Nellore and Srikakulam, three each in Kadapa, Krishna and Prakasam, two in Kurnool and one in Guntur.