The raging coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak has claimed 41 lives in Andhra Pradesh --- the highest in southern India -- after three fresh deaths were reported in the past 24 hours along with 54 new cases, as the overall tally rose to 1,887.
An official bulletin released by the state health department on Friday said out of the three fresh deaths, two and one were reported from Kurnool and Visakhapatnam districts, respectively.
Visakhapatnam, the proposed administrative capital Andhra Pradesh, recorded its first Covid-19 related death, which occurred on the heels of another tragedy after a poisonous gas leak from a chemical plant, LG Polymers, claimed 12 lives on Thursday.
The port city, which did not report any Covid-19 positive cases since April, suddenly saw a spike over the past week.
On Friday, 11 new Covid-19 positive cases were recorded in Visakhapatnam, taking the total count to 57 along with one death.
Andhra has 1,004 active Covid-19 cases and 842 patients, including 62 in the last 24 hours, have been discharged so far.
Vizianagaram, which was the only district in the state to hold the rare distinction of being in the green zone, lost its tag, as four new Covid-19 positive cases were recorded in the past 48 hours.
{{/usCountry}}Vizianagaram, which was the only district in the state to hold the rare distinction of being in the green zone, lost its tag, as four new Covid-19 positive cases were recorded in the past 48 hours.
{{/usCountry}}Kurnool district remains Andhra’s Covid-19 hotspot with 547 positive cases and 14 deaths. Guntur district ranks second with 374 cases and eight deaths, followed by Krishna with 322 cases and 11 deaths. Anantapur district has recorded 99 cases and four deaths. Nellore district has reported three deaths to date.
On Friday, an 80-year old woman from Ganigalli area of Kurnool town was discharged from Viswabharathi district Covid-19 hospital after she was found to have recovered from the viral outbreak.
“She is the oldest among all the Covid-19 patients in the district to recover,” said Kurnool collector G Veerapandian.
“She was admitted to the hospital on April 14. She underwent treatment for three weeks and two consecutive tests have found her negative. Of the 100 patients discharged from Viswabharathi district Covid-19 hospital, the youngest was a 16-month-old,” he added.