Vijayawada: In just six weeks since the first coronavirus positive case was reported in Andhra Pradesh on March 12, the number of Covid-19 cases has reached the vicinity of 1000.
In addition to the 955 cases officially declared as positive, there are at least 30 presumptive positives reported in rapid testing, and the samples will be tested again using the RT-PCR method for final confirmation.
Kurnool and Guntur continued to be the hotbeds of coronavirus infection with 27 and 11 cases respectively reported from these two districts. A total of 62 new cases were reported on Friday morning. Krishna too contributed to the tally with 14 cases.
Political interference and goof-ups by local administrations led to chaos in districts like Kurnool, Guntur and Anantapur, while officials in Srikakulam and Vizianagaram have shown exemplary efficiency to prevent coronavirus from entering their districts.
With the date for the lifting of lockdown nearing, there is no sign of flattening of the infection curve in the state in the near future.
Authorities have been urging the state government to form back-up teams and believe the stressed-out health workers.
With 22 health care personnel getting infected with the virus, officials have highlighted the need for providing them a better protective gear.
The Covid 19 data of the state available with Deccan Chronicle showed that the cumulative recovery rate in the last six weeks is 18 per cent as against 20 per cent national average while the fatality rate is 3.03 per cent, which is just a notch below the national average of 3.08 per cent.
Of the 54,338 people tested so far, 955 have been found positive for the Covid-19 disease, which is less than two per cent and the spread ratio too stood just close to two per cent.
“The positive sign is that 70 per cent new cases are coming from the old clusters in the four districts of Kurnool, Guntur, Krishna and Chittoor,” says K.S. Jawahar Reddy, special chief secretary for health.
More clarity has been emerging on the containment operations, thanks to increased testing by the Andhra Pradesh government which continues to top the country with higher tests per million which stood at 1,018 on Friday. Of the total positive cases, the health authorities could identify the source of spread and quarantined them well in advance, thereby reducing the chances of community spread.
Except in 72 cases, the data showed the origin of infection was linked to 14 people returned from foreign countries and 258 returned from the Markaz event in Delhi. Three hundred primary contacts and 109 secondary contacts were also tested positive while 130 were found infected in the random testing.
