Anantapur district has witnessed the second largest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases in the State with 637 (behind 647 of East Godavari) persons testing positive in 24 hours taking the total to 5,141. Three fatalities were recorded during this period.
On the other hand, positive cases in Kurnool district saw a downslide at 364 reported on Sunday taking the total to 6,045.
On Sunday evening, 64 persons were discharged from hospitals/COVID Care Centres in Anantapur district.
Following the surge in cases, there is an acute shortage of beds in hospitals and COVID Care Centre in Anantapur district. Joint Collector Nishant Kumar along with Anantapur Medical College principal Myreddy Neeraja on Sunday visited the under-construction super-speciality hospital to study the feasibility of utilising the facility for COVID-19 patients. As of Saturday morning, there were no vacancies in the four hospitals - GGH Anantapur, RDT Bathalapalli, Hindupur and KIMS Saveera.
In the five active COVID Care Centres at PVKK College (40), SVJC (50), JNTU (140), Narayana (130) and SK University (20) only 380 beds are available. The district administration is making all-out efforts to create new facilities by converting an under-construction warehouse into a 1500-bed COVID Care Centre.
Kurnool district reported 590 and 550 positive cases in the past two days and has cumulatively tested 1,45,339 samples so far.
Kurnool Collector G. Veerapandian, Superintendent of Police Fakeerappa Kaginelli and Municipal Commissioner D.K. Balaji made a joint inspection and review of the implementation of the lockdown measures in Kurnool city.