Coronavirus | Andhra Pradesh claims 1.13% positivity rate

At 11.34%, Kerala much higher than other southern States; Tests in Karnataka show a rate of 1.22%

November 29, 2020 10:17 pm | Updated 10:32 pm IST - Thiruvananthapuram

A doctor uses a thermal-screening device on a police officer in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

A doctor uses a thermal-screening device on a police officer in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

Kerala was on the threshold of six-lakh COVID-19 cases on Sunday, with the State reporting 5,643 new cases from 49,775 samples.

The test positivity rate continued in the 9-11% range rising a bit to 11.34% on Sunday. Also, 5,861 COVID-19 patients got discharged from hospitals.

The active case load stood at 64,589 cases. So far, 5,32,658 persons had recovered.

The COVID-19 toll rose to 2,223 with another 27 deaths added to the official list. Thrissur accounted for six deaths, Kottayam five, Alappuzha and Ernakulam, four each, Malappuram three, Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram two each and Wayanad, one.

Official figures said there were 841critically patients being treated in ICUs , 222 of them requiring ventilator support.

Of the 5,643 new cases reported on Sunday, 5,556 cases were locally acquired infections, with 87 cases linked to a travel history outside the State. No epidemiological link was found for 571 infections. The number of healthcare workers who contracted the infection was 34.

 

Among districts, Kozhikode reported 851 cases, Malappuram 721, Thrissur 525, Ernakulam 512, Kollam 426, Kottayam, 399, Palakkad 394, Alappuzha 381, Thiruvananthapuram 370, Kannur 277, Idukki 274, Pathanamthitta 244, Wayanad 147, and Kasaragod 122 cases.

COVID-19 cases in Telangana were on a decline. Four more COVID-19 patients died. Earlier, in October, when around 40,000 to 42,000 samples were tested per day, over 1,400 positive cases were detected; over 1,500 tested positive when over 45,000 samples were tested.

However, the cases and tests declined from November 20. Thereon, when over 42,000 samples were tested, less than a 1,000 cases were detected.

On Saturday, 46,280 samples were tested and 805 cases were detected. Results of 612 were awaited. From November 23 to 28, a high of 47,593 samples were tested on November 24 and 993 tested positive.

Campaigning for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections could raise coronavirus spread again as a large number of people gathered for rallies and did not maintain six-feet distance and many did not wear masks.

The 805 new cases included 131 from Greater Hyderabad, 82 from Medchal- Malkajgiri and 58 from Rangareddy. The lowest of two cases were reported in Narayanpet and three in Jangaon.

Andhra Pradesh reported 620 new infections and seven deaths on Sunday, pushing the tally to 8,67,683 and the toll to 6,988.

The number of samples tested crossed the one-crore mark and reached 1,00,17,126 with a positivity rate of 8.66%. The positivity rate of 54,710 samples tested in 24 hours was 1.13%, the lowest in six months.

Nearly 18.76% of the State’s 5.34-crore population were tested in 10 months. Andhra Pradesh is the fifth State to cross one crore tests, with the highest claimed tests per million ratio at 1.87 lakh.

The State began testing in February, with foreign returnees to Hyderabad. It started testing at the Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences in Tirupati. On October 29, as many as 88,778 samples, the highest, were tested.

However, it took 16 days to test the last million samples against 13 days each for tests to increase from 70 lakh and 80 lakh.

The positivity rate of the last million samples was 1.65%, the lowest, as only 16,385 cases were detected. For the first million samples tested between February and July, the positivity rate was 1.84% rising to 13.21% for the second million and peaking at 16.86% for the fourth million.

Krishna and Visakhapatnam districts reported two new deaths each, while Guntur, Chittoor and West Godavari reported one each.

West Godavari and Guntur reported more than 100 new infections, at 107 and 101.

They were followed by Krishna (85), Chittoor (640), Kadapa (48), East Godavari (40), Nellore (39), Visakhapatnam (36), Vizianagaram (35), Prakasam (19), Anantapur (16), Kurnool (15) and Srikakulam (15).

The overall tallies were: East Godavari (1,22,246), West Godavari (92,368), Chittoor (83,643), Guntur (72,847), Anantapur (66,670), Prakasam (61,446), Nellore (61,405), Kurnool (60,223), Visakhapatnam (58,152), Kadapa (54,326), Srikakulam (45,451), Krishna (45,342) and Vizianagaram (40,669).

Karnataka on Sunday reported 1,291 new cases, taking the total number of positive cases since the start of the pandemic to 8.83 lakh. Fifteen people succumbed to the virus and the death toll was 11,765. The case fatality rate for the day stood at 1.16%.

The Department of Health and Family Welfare said the positivity rate was 1.22%. The total number of active cases was 24,503; around 374 patients were in intensive care.

The total discharges stood at 1,530, taking the total number of recoveries to 8.47 lakh.

Bengaluru Urban reported 686 new cases, the maximum among all districts. With 10 deaths, the district toll rose to 4,131. As many as 13,223 Rapid Antigen Detection Tests and 92,205 RT-PCR tests were conducted in 24 hours, taking total tests to 1,05,428.

(With inputs from Hyderabad, Vijayawada and Bengaluru bureaus)

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