Vizag reports 179 new COVID-19 cases, district tally increases to 2741

On Saturday, Vizag reported 179 new COVID-19 cases to take the tally to 2741. This is the second time that the district is seeing such a surge in the COVID-19 numbers. According to the COVID-19 Special Officer for Visakhapatnam, Dr PV Sudhakar, 912 patients are undergoing treatment in the district and 1780  individuals have been discharged after recovering from the virus. 2 patient succumbed to the infection to take the death toll in the district to 49.

Adaivaram, Santoshnagar, SC BC Colony- Zone VI, Area Hospital, ITDA Quarters- Paderu, G Kothapalli – Cheedikad, Chaitanya Nagar, Dwarakanagar, Ganesh Nagar, Near Tara Masjid, Srinagar – Zone-II, Kindakotapadu- Kotapadu, Kondaveedhi – Araku, Nagulapalli- Munagapaka, Sharadanagar- Anakapalli have been identified as the new containment clusters in Vizag in wake of the new COVID-19 cases. As on 18 July evening, Visakhapatnam reported 165 very active clusters, 190 active clusters, 175 dormant clusters, and 39 denotified clusters.

With the cases continuing to grow by the day, Tourism Minister Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao urged the district officials to ramp up the testing measures in Visakhapatnam. M Srinivasa Rao said that approximately 3,000 COVID-19 tests are being conducted on a daily basis in Visakhapatnam. So far, over one lakh people have been tested for free in the district, and the authorities have plans of increasing the testing number to 4,000 within the next ten days, he said.

Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh registered as many as 3963 new COVID-19 cases, witnessing a massive jump of 1361 cases in a single day. The total number of COVID-19 cases in Andhra Pradesh has now climbed to 44609. All the new cases have been reported from the state with none of the returnees from other states and foreign countries testing positive in 24 hours. East Godavari reported a record 994 new COVID-19 cases in a single day while Kurnool, West Godavari and Chittoor accounted for 550 cases, 407 cases and 343 cases respectively.

23,872 samples were tested across Andhra Pradesh between Friday and Saturday. With 3963 individuals testing positive, the positivity rate marked 16.6%. So far, Andhra Pradesh has tested 12,84,384 samples for COVID-19. While 21,763 individuals (including the 1411 individuals discharged today) have been discharged so far, 22,260 coronavirus cases in Andhra Pradesh have been marked active as on Saturday afternoon.