Thanks to an influx of migrants from other states, and the Koyambedu connection, Andhra Pradesh is yet again seeing an upswing in covid numbers over the past two days.
On Friday morning, the state nodal officer reported 102 new cases detected in the past 24 hours ending 10 a.m.
Of the 9,023 samples tested during this period, 45 cases pertain to people returning from Maharashtra and Rajasthan. Of these, 34 samples belong to people from Maharashtra, while 11 are of people from Rajasthan. On Thursday, 32 of the positive samples had been those belonging to migrant returnees from other states.
Of the remaining 57 positive cases in the state, 28 samples belong to people with travel history to the Koyambedu market in Chennai. The Koyambedu market, a major market yard for farm and vegetable produce in the region, has been closed after it emerged as the single major factor in the spread of COVID-19 in neighbouring Tamil Nadu.
Chittoor and Nellore districts have emerged as the new coronavirus hotspots in Andhra Pradesh, primarily because of the Koyambedu connection. As many as 13 of the 14 cases detected in Chittoor district had a travel history to the Chennai market, while 8 of the 14 cases in Nellore district, and 5 of the 8 cases in Kurnool district had a similar connection. Anantapur district reported 4 cases, of which 1 person had a travel history to Koyambedu. One of the 2 cases reported from Kadapa district also had a travel history to Chennai.
On Thursday, of the 36 cases detected in the state, 21 samples belong to persons with travel history to Chennai.
Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts reported 3, 2, and 1 cases respectively, while 4 of the state’s 13 districts did not report any positive case over the past 24 hours.
Kurnool district continues to lead with its cumulative tally inching to 599 cases on Friday. With 343 persons cured and discharged, the active cases have steadily declined to 238 active. This is followed by Guntur and Krishna districts with cumulative tallies of 404 and 360 cases respectively.
With no deaths reported during the past 24 hours, the state’s death toll remained 48 on Friday morning. With 60 persons cured and discharged by Friday, the overall tally of discharged persons in Andhra Pradesh stands at 1,252.
At the state level, the cumulative tally in the state rose to 2,157 cases on Friday.
Meanwhile, the active cases tally is constantly on the decline and further fell to 857 from the previous day’s overall tally of 860 cases. Of the active cases, 150 cases pertain to people returning from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odisha, and Karnataka. The majority (101) are from Maharashtra, while 26 persons have returned from Gujarat, 11 persons from Rajasthan, 10 from Odisha, and 1 each from Karnataka and West Bengal.
