Total coronavirus cases count in Visakhapatnam district crosses 8000

As many as 282 individuals across Visakhapatnam district tested positive for coronavirus from Monday to Tuesday. With the newly registered cases, the total number of coronavirus cases in Vizag crossed 8000, on 28 July. According to the district bulletin released by Special Officer for COVID-19 Visakhapatnam, Dr PV Sudhakar, the district reported 5250 active cases and 2805 discharges. Four individuals have succumbed to the novel coronavirus, taking the death toll to 75.

As per the report, officials have demarcated seven new containment clusters – Durga Colony – Chodavaram, Anandapuram, LV Palem, Gollaveedi, Kapuluppada, Yathakummaripalem – Bheemili, and NGO’s Colony-1 – Zone-II. As on Tuesday, Visakhapatnam district currently reports 112 very active clusters, 240 active clusters, 322 dormant clusters, and 39 denotified clusters. 

Earlier on Monday, Visakhapatnam District Collector, V Vinay Chand (IAS), directed the officials to adopt a comprehensive and decentralised approach to curb the spread of coronavirus, following the government guidelines. Breaking down the tracing and treating strategy implemented in the district to the media, Mr Chand informed that “Primary Health and Surveillance Teams” (PHSTs) of ward secretariats will conduct contact tracing. One ward in the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) and three wards in rest of the municipalities in the district will act as the “Secondary Health and Surveillance Team” for testing. Tertiary Health and Surveillance Teams from the corporation and the municipalities would carry out treatment to the individuals who test positive for the virus, he added. 

On the state level, as many as 7948 samples out of the total 62,979 samples tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday. With these latest cases, the tally of Andhra Pradesh stood as 1,10,297. While 56,527 cases have been marked active as on 28 July, 52,622 individuals have been discharged (including the 3,064 individuals discharged from Monday to Tuesday) after recovering from the infection. The death toll increased to 1148 with 58 more patients succumbing to the infection. 

Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, conducted a review meeting with the district collectors and Superintendent of Police (SPs) of the state to discuss the prevention and current situation. During the meeting, Mr Reddy said that AP is the only state in the country to conduct 50,000 tests a day. “We are testing more than 31,000 individuals per million,” he said. 

Sharing the recovery progress of AP, the Chief Minister said that although more than one lakh cases have been registered in the state, almost 50% of the patients have been cured. He pointed out that the mortality rate of the coronavirus cases in the country is 2.5 percent while it is 1.06 percent in the state. Saying that there is no need to panic, Mr Reddy added that 85 percent of the patients were cured at their respective homes.