A scare gripped Andhra Pradesh as coronavirus cases in the state climbed to 111 with 67 testing positive on Wednesday, at a time when things appeared to be well under control with only a handful of cases reported, mostly of foreign returnees, in the first fortnight.
While 43 cases were reported from 9 pm on Tuesday to 9 am on Wednesday, another 24 were added after 7 pm, all the fresh ones only related to the Jamaat congregation in New Delhi.
The quantum jump in the number of cases was solely on account of those who returned to various parts of the state from the Tabligh-e-Jamaat congregation.
Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy said as many as 1,085 people from the state attended the Jamaat congregation in the national capital and returned.
The unexpected spurt in Corona positive cases pushed the state administration into an overdrive to place all the suspects under quarantine while simultaneously treating the afflicted people, as fear lurked over the untraced possible carriers.
Barring the two north coastal districts of Vizianagaram and Srikakulam, all others registered Corona cases in the state, with Guntur reporting the highest 20, followed by Prakasam, Krishna and Kadapa with 15 cases each.
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Incidentally, the first Jamaat-related Coronavirus case was reported from Guntur on March 25 and ever since almost all new cases, barring two or three, were on account of the same religious gathering.
Of the total 109 active Coronavirus cases in the state, 94 related to the Jamaat persons and their close contacts. Ten were foreign returnees and six others their contacts, according to state Nodal Officer Arja Srikanth.
All those who tested positive have been sent for quarantine, he said in a release.
Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, in a televised address, asked people not to attach any stigma to Corona patients but treat them with compassion, saying the virus was just like any common fever or flu.
"Staying in isolation is the only key to check the spread of coronavirus as it gets transmitted only through human-to- human contact. It easily gets cured through medication," the Chief Minister sought to assure the people.
Jagan pointed out that even Prime Ministers of some countries and their kin too got afflicted with coronavirus but got successfully cured.
"Of the 585 of them tested so far, 70 turned positive while test results of another 500 persons is awaited. We are yet to trace 21 other persons related to the Jamaat," Reddy said.
West Godavari district, which did not have a single Covid-19 case till Tuesday, recorded 13 positive cases.
Five new cases were added in Chittoor district, two each in East Godavari, SPS Nellore and one in Visakhapatnam district, a bulletin of the Medical and Health Department said.
A total of 1,313 samples were tested so far, including 218 of foreign returnees and 543 Jamaat returnees.
Of them, 87 turned positive and the rest negative, it said.