The State has reported 8,147 new COVID-19 cases, the highest single-day spike ever, during the past 24 hours taking the tally to 80,858. Forty-nine persons succumbed to the virus in the past day and the death toll mounted to 933.
With the discharge of 2,380 patients, the number of recoveries went up to 39,935. The number of patients are undergoing treatment at various hospitals has been put at 39,990. In the past day, 48,114 samples were tested and so far 15.3 lakh samples were tested in the State. The positivity rate has further increased to 5.25%.
The new deaths were reported in 10 districts, including East Godavari which reported 11 deaths, the highest among districts. Krishna reported nine deaths and Kurnool reported eight deaths while Srikakulam reported seven and West Godavari reported five deaths. Guntur and Visakhapatnam reported three deaths each and Chittoor, Vizianagarm and Prakasam reported one death each.
East Godavari also reported the highest number of new cases at 1,029. It is followed by Anantapur (984), Kurnool (914), Visakhapatnam (898), West Godavari (807), Guntur (703), Chittoor (630), Kadapa (494), Srikakulam (374), Krishna (359), Prakasam (355), Vizianagaram (322) and Nellore (278).
The district tallies of local cases are as follows: East Godavari (11,067), Kurnool (9,615), Guntur (8,800), Anantapur (8,266), Chittoor (6,569),West Godavari (6,541), Visakhapatnam (5,061), Krishna (4,841), Kadapa (4,067), Srikakulam (3,949), Nellore (3,726), Prakasam (3,059) and Vizianagaram (2,402).
Plasma donation sought
Special Chief Secretary K.S. Jawahar Reddy has appealed to the COVID recovered patients to come forward and donate plasma. Dr. Reddy, in a release, said that plasma therapy could be used to save the lives of critical patients in the ICUs. It is the last resort to save the infected people from dying and administration of plasma therapy can improve the immunity in the patients and help them fight the virus, he said. He said that persons who donate plasma will not have any health issues or side effects and it is completely safe.
He said permissions to take up plasma therapy had already been acquired for SVIMS,Tirupati, and GGH, Kurnool, and GGH, Vijayawada, and GGH, Guntur, are likely to get permission soon.
