The State reported 4,955 fresh cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours ending Saturday morning. It was the highest single-day tally in the past 205 days. Only one death in was reported from West Godavari in the past day.

The daily test positivity rate has been increasing at an alarming rate in the State. Of the 35,673 samples tested in the past day, 13.89% turned positive, and on Friday, the test positivity rate was 11.37%.

During the past 10 days, the daily test positivity rate increased from 1.64% to 13.89%, while the daily tally increased from around 500 to 5,000.

Tally crosses 21 lakh

On Friday too, 4,528 cases were reported. As a result, the active cases tally increased to 22,870. The cumulative tally crossed 21 lakh and reached 21,01,710. The death toll reached 14,0509.

The recovery rate came down to 98.22%, and the recovery rate and total recoveries stand at 98.22% and 20,64,331 respectively.

Meanwhile, during the first 15 days of January, a total of 24,565 cases close to the total cases (26,281) reported in October, November and December of 2021 were reported.

During the 15 days, only 14 deaths were reported, while during the three months prior to it 319 deaths occurred.

For the first time in several months, two districts reported more than a thousand infections each. Visakhapatnam reported 1,103 and Chittoor reported 1,039 cases. They were followed by Nellore (397), Kadapa (377), Guntur (326), Kurnool (323), East Godavari (303), Srikakulam (243), Anantapur (212), Krishna (203), Prakasam (190), Vizianagaram (184) and West Godavari (55).

Chittoor and Visakhapatnam together have over 41% of the state’s active cases.

The district tallies are as follows: East Godavari (2,96,837), Chittoor (2,53,978), Guntur (1,81,250), West Godavari (1,80,643), Visakhapatnam (1,63,877), Anantapur (1,59,726), Nellore (1,48,902), Prakasam (1,39,528), Srikakulam (1,25,220), Kurnool (1,25,189), Krishna (1,22,390), Kadapa (1,16,987) andn Vizianagaram (84,288).