Andhra Pradesh coronavirus update: Meteoric rise in cases in around 15 days

: Andhra Pradesh has witnessed a

meteoric rise in the numbers related to COVID-19 in less than a fortnight as the state has now climbed to the third spot behind Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu in the country.

From March 12 when it reported the first coronavirus case, AP took a long time till June 24 to go past the 10,000 mark and July 20 to cross 50,000 total cases, but the aggregate rocketed to 1,50,209 by August 1.

In just the last 13 days, the state registered a staggering 96,485 cases with 39,912 coming in only the past four days.

By July 20, a total of 13,49,112 tests were conducted with a positivity rate of 3.98 per cent.

But the infection positivity rate shot up to 7.46 per cent on August 1 with the addition of just 6,63,461 tests in 13 days.

The government has maintained that the increase in cases was due to more number of tests being conducted.

From July 20 to August 1, the state also saw the COVID-19 toll jump from 696 to 1,407, an increase of 711, while the number of active cases rose by 43,388 after 52,386 patients got cured.

The COVID-19 recovery rate improved from 45.10 per cent to 51 per cent during the period while the mortality rate dipped from 1.30 per cent to 0.94 per cent, despite the spurt in number of deaths.

Government authorities attributed the exponential surge in COVID-19 virulence in AP to those coming from other states and countries after Unlock 1.0, but the last such cases (10) were reported on July 17.

In all 2,461 people from other states and 434 foreign returnees tested positive for coronavirus after Unlock 1.0.

Of the 13 districts in the state, seven crossed the 10,000 mark each in the total number of COVID-19 cases as on August 1, with East Godavari topping the chart with 21,271.

Incidentally, East Godavari was the first to cross the 10,000 cases mark on July 23 and has since added 11,233, the largest in the state thus far, though other districts like Anantapuramu, Kurnool and Visakhapatnam are fast catching up.