The spread of coronavirus continued unabated in south coastal Andhra region as 21 more patients, 15 in Nellore district and 6 in Prakasam, succumbed to the pandemic taking the combined death toll in the two districts to 361 in the last 24 hours.
The toll mounted to 170 in Nellore district, while 755 new cases were registered taking the tally to 19,300, a health bulletin released by the State Government said on Wednesday night.
With six fresh deaths, the toll went up to 191 in Prakasam district where the total number of cases reached 13,533 with the addition of 585 new cases on Wednesday. The district reported 52 deaths in the last one week. While 51 patients died in the hospitals, one died while on the way to Ongole, a daily status report compiled by the district administration said.
As many as 738 in Nellore district and 369 in Prakasam district were discharged from COVID-19 hospitals on recovery during the period. The number of fresh admissions outnumbered the number of discharged patients by 233 in the two districts.
The disease spread across 291 clusters in Prakasam district including remote villages like Korisapadu, Medermetla, Chadalavada and Cumbum.
As many as 3,020 patients were under home isolation in Prakasam district while 991 patients were offered treatment at the COVID-19 Care Centres. As the condition of 56 of the 1,039 patients remained critical, they were shifted to intensive care unit.
After overseeing the treatment being provided to the in-patients, COVID-19 Prakasam district nodal officer John Richards exhorted the recovered patients to donate plasma and save lives of critical patients.
In Nellore, District Collector K.V.N. Chakradhar Rao promulgated an order earmarking 120 beds with 30 each in the Narayana Medical College Hospital for government employees, doctors, journalists and advocates contracting the virus in the district.