Andhra Pradesh reports 9,996 fresh Covid-19 cases, tally now over 264,000

: The COVID-19 tally shot up to

2,64,142 in Andhra Pradesh on Thursday as 9,996 fresh cases were reported in the last 24 hours, the latest bulletin said.

The state also registered 82 more coronavirus deaths, taking the overall toll to 2,378.

Also, 9,499 patients were discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours after they recovered from the viral infection, making it a cumulative of 1,70,924 recoveries so far.

The state now has 90,840 active Covid-19 cases, the bulletin added.

After 27,05,459 sample tests, the Covid-19 positivity rate climbed further to 9.76 per cent.

The Covid-19 case rise in East Godavari district continued at an alarming rate as another 1,504 were added in the last 24 hours, pushing its gross to 37,146.

The district also saw 10 fresh deaths while 906 coronavirus patients got cured.

The district now has 15,872 active cases, the highest in the state, after a total of 21,026 patients got cured and another 248 succumbed.

Special Chief Secretary (Health) K S Jawahar Reddy attributed the unabated virulence of Covid-19 in East Godavari (EG) district to the "high density of population."

"The district has a population of 55 lakh.Its like a big urban area.Villages are also like towns.

Thats what we can think of," Jawahar Reddy replied when asked about the massive surge of cases particularly in the last two to three weeks.

Asked if adequate facilities were available to handle the increasing caseload, the Special Chief Secretary said the district Collector was handling most of the cases through home isolation.

"People are also comfortable there.In EG, we have two private medical college hospitals, one Government General Hospital and one district hospital.We are able to handle them," Jawahar Reddy said.

He said almost 8,000 to 10,000 beds were available in Covid Care Centres in the district.