Andhra, Telangana report biggest single day jumps in Covid-19 cases

Adding a whopping 30,000 plus

coronavirus cases in three days, Andhra Pradesh on Friday witnessed a record 10,376 infections, crossing the five digit mark for the third straight day, while neighbouring Telangana too witnessed its worst single-day increase.

The other southern states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka saw a dip in their cases, but still reported over 5,000 daily infections.

Kerala and the union territory of Puducherry too saw yet another spurt in their respective numbers.

Together, the five southern states and the UT had 25,570 COVID-19 cases on Friday.

Andhra Pradesh's 10,376 fresh cases pushed the state's overall tally to 1,40,933, while 60 deaths were recorded, resulting in a total of 1,349 fatalities so far, a government bulletin said.

The infection positivity rate shot up to 7.22 per cent due to the abnormal spurt in the number of cases in the last three days when it added 30,636 cases.

As many as 3,822 patients recovered and were discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours ending at 10 AM.

Overall, the state now has 75,720 active cases after 63,864 were cured, the bulletin added.

As per government data, the state completed 19,51,776 tests so far at the rate of 36,550 per million population.

Having the second highest number of COVID-19 patients after Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu saw 5,881 infections and 97 fatalities on Friday.

However, today's confirmed cases were marginally lesser than those on Thursday, at 5,864.

With the new additions of confirmed cases, the total number of infected went up to 2,45,859, the government said.

The cumulative discharges stood at 1,83,956 with 5,778 patients cured on Friday, with the active cases being 57,968.

Capital city Chennai was on the verge of recording one lakh cases, as the cumulative tally in the metropolis stood at 99,794 with 2,113 deaths.

The toll from the virus in the state stood at 3,935.

Karnataka recorded over 5,000 COVID-19 cases for the eighth consecutive day on Friday, with 5,843 infections and also witnessed 84 fatalities, taking the death toll to 2,314.

The total number of infected persons was 1,24,115.

The day also saw 3,130 patients getting discharged after recovery.

As of July 31 evening, cumulatively 1,24,115 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed, which includes 2,314 deaths and 49,788 discharges.

Out of 72,005 active cases, 71,396 patients are in isolation at designated hospitals and are stable, while 609 are in Intensive Care Units.

Kerala reported 1,310 virus cases on Friday, including 20 health workers, taking the infection tally to 23,607, while three deaths took the toll to 73.

A total of 864 people have recovered.

The positive cases include 885 of Friday and 425 of Thursday.

(Yesterday due to some technical issues, the Covid list released by the government was not complete).

Presently 10,495 people are under treatment, while 13,027 have recovered, including 864 discharged today.

In Telangana, 1,986 new cases emerged, the highest single day spike so far, taking the tally of positive cases in the state to 62,703.

With 14 more deaths, the coronavirus toll in the state rose to 519, a state government bulletin said on Friday, providing data as of 8 PM on July 30.

While Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), the hotbed of the virus spread in the state, continues to report a high number of cases, there has been a significant rise in the number of cases being reported from different districts, including Ranga Reddy, Medchal-Malkajgiri, Sangareddy, Warangal Urban and Karimnagar.

Out of the 1,986 fresh cases, 586 were from the GHMC, followed by Medchal-Malkajgiri (207) and Ranga Reddy (205) districts, the bulletin said.

Puducherry also saw its highest daily spurt of 174, while the death toll was 49 after a 56-year old woman succumbed to coronavirus in the UT.

The 174 fresh cases took the overall tally to 3,467.

While there were 1,323 active cases, 2,095 patients have recovered and were discharged while the fatalities stood at 49, he added.