Infections in south stay steady, with about 2,000 cases added in Kerala, Karnataka; Telangana, A.P. incidence at over 400
The incidence of COVID-19 infection on Tuesday showed a high for the present year in Andhra Pradesh at 492 cases, besides 1,985 cases in Kerala, 2,010 in Karnataka and 412 in Telangana, the latter as of Monday. Kerala added 10 deaths from the virus from the past few days’ fatalities.
Karnataka Health Minister K. Sudhakar denied any vaccine shortage and said the State would get four lakh doses from the Centre by a special flight on Wednesday, and 12.5 lakh by next week.
In a single cluster, 163 students of a private college hostel tested positive in Kateru, Rajamahendravaram Rural of Andhra Pradesh’s East Godavari district. District Medical and Health Officer K.V.S. Gowreeswara Rao said about 800 boarders had been tested.
Andhra Pradesh reported two more virus deaths. The toll rose to 7,193 and the death rate was 0.80%. There were 2,616 active cases.
Meanwhile, the test positivity rate (TPR) rose. Between March 17 and 23, 2.24 lakh samples were tested with a TPR of 1%. Between March 10 and 16, it was 2.77 lakh samples and TPR of 0.49%. The TPR of the 2.95 lakh samples tested between March 3 and 9 was 0.27%.
In the past day, 33,634 samples were tested and 1.46% were positive.
Chittoor and Visakhapatnam reported one new death each. East Godavari reported 168 new infections. Other cases were in Krishna (63), Chittoor (56), Guntur (47), Visakhapatnam (46), Anantapur (29), Nellore (22), Kurnool (20), Prakasam (12), West Godavari (12), Srikakulam (10), Kadapa (5) and Vizianagaram (2).
Kerala reported 1,985 new cases from 57,425 samples. The TPR, steady below 4% for the past few days, was 3.46% on Tuesday.
The addition of 10 new deaths on Tuesday took the overall toll to 4,517 deaths. Kozhikode reported three deaths, Thrissur, Malappuram and Kannur two each, and Kasaragod, one death.
Of the new cases on Tuesday, 1,763 were locally acquired infections. Among the districts, Kannur reported the maximum new cases at 252, Kozhikode 223, Thrissur 196, Kottayam 190, Ernakulam 178, Kollam 175, Thiruvananthapuram 148, Kasaragod 128, Alappuzha 117, Pathanamthitta 101, Malappuram 92, Palakkad 79, Wayanad 59 and Idukki 47 cases.
Over 400 cases were recorded in Telangana, with 412 people testing positive on Monday. A total of 68,171 samples were tested and three more patients died. Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation had 103 cases, while there were 32 from Nirmal, 31 from Medchal Malkajgiri and 27 from Rangareddy.
Karnataka’s Health Department said it had 10.74 lakh doses. So far, the State received 38.85 lakh doses and vaccinated 28,11,974 people till March 23. Karnataka reported 2,010 new cases on Tuesday, 1,280 from Bengaluru Urban alone. With this, the total number of cases rose to 9,73,657. With five deaths the toll rose to 12,449.
Also, 98,733 tests were conducted, including 91,103 RT-PCR tests.
(With inputs from Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad and Bengaluru bureaus)
