Andhra Pradesh reported four new deaths and 1,184 COVID-19 infections on Wednesday, the highest number in a day since November 21 last year.
In March, infections increased by 82.7% compared to February. A total of 12,075 infections were reported in March, compared to just 2,080 in February. Only 5,550 infections were added in January. Deaths also rose 67%, as 48 people succumbed to the virus in March, while 16 died in the previous month.
In March, 11.31 lakh samples were tested and the test positive rate (TPR) was 1.07%. The TPR was 0.25% in February, 0.42% in January and 0.80% in December 2020.
However, the TPR of 30,851 samples tested Wednesday was 3.84%. Three of the four new deaths occurred in the Chittoor district and one in Nellore.
352 new cases were recorded in Guntur District, Visakhapatnam (186), Chittoor (115) and Krishna (113), which together made up 65% of the state’s balance sheet last day.
Telangana saw a sharp spike in cases Tuesday, with 684 people testing positive. Three other patients died. This is the second highest number of cases in a day in about four months, and a big jump from the past two days. Only 403 and 463 cases were recorded on Sunday and Monday, respectively. On December 8, the state had reported 721 cases.
Between February 1 and March 9, the highest daily number in the state was 189, but on Tuesday GHMC had 184 cases alone. There were 61 new cases of Medchal-Malkajgiri, 48 of Nizamabad, 45 of Rangareddy, 30 of Nirmal, 24 of Nalgonda, 23 of Karimnagar and Mahbubnagar, and 21 of Sangareddy.
Karnataka reported a steep increase of 4,225 new cases on Wednesday, 2,928 from Bengaluru Urban alone. The death toll also rose by 26.
Kerala added 2,653 new cases on Wednesday, a TPR of 5.37%. The addition of 15 deaths brought the cumulative number to 4,621 deaths. Thiruvananthapuram reported four deaths, Alappuzha and Kozhikode three each, Ernakulam two, and Kollam, Kottayam and Kannur one death each.
Among the districts, Kannur reported the maximum of 416 cases, Kozhikode 398, Ernakulam 316, and Thiruvananthapuram 234.
(With contributions from the offices in Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Thiruvananathapuram)