Coronavirus cases as also deaths came down while the number of recoveries continued to go up significantly in south coastal Andhra Pradesh in the last 24 hours, offering a breather for the exhausted health staff and overwhelmed hospitals.
The combined toll in the districts of Nellore and Prakasam, which had been in the double digit each day during the previous week, increased only marginally by seven to 930. With six more deaths, the toll went up to 484 in Prakasam district while the toll stood at 446 with one more death in Nellore district, according to a health bulletin released by the State government.
With 324 persons testing positive for the disease, the cumulative confirmed cases rose to 48,249 in Prakasam district and the count climbed to 53,901 with 415 new cases in SPSR Nellore district.
The number of recoveries was more by about 1,000 when compared to fresh admissions in the two districts during the period as 1,829 recovered from the disease in the two districts. The number of active cases came down to 8,208 in Prakasam district with 1,470 persons recovering. In Nellore district, 359 persons were discharged from hospitals bringing down the number of active cases to 3,744.
Taking note of the positive trend, Nellore District Collector K.V.N.Chakradhar Babu lauded the services of doctors, who attended to patients 24 x 7. The district stood first in plasma donation, he said. About 1,800 to 2,000 patients were being treated at the regional COVID Care Centre at the Narayana Medical College hospital.
He also lauded the services of the Indian Red Cross Society(IRCS) for arranging the funeral of the deceased patients as per WHO protocol.