AP all set to beat Delhi in Covid-19 infections

Andhra Pradesh has become the hotbed of the coronavirus spread in the country where the number of cases has breached the grim milestone of one lakh mark while the death toll has crossed the 1,000-mark as well.

In the last 24 hours, the state has reported 7,948 infections taking the total number of cases to a whopping 1,10,297. During the same period. 56 Covid-19 patients succumbed to the deadly infection.

A total of 1,148 Covid-19 patients have succumbed to the virus so far, and the fatality rate is growing each day. Andhra Pradesh currently is the fourth worst-hit state by the pandemic after toppling Karnataka to claim the dubious ranking.

The state has the fourth-highest number of Covid-19 positive cases at 1,10,297 cases and racing ahead to unseat Delhi to clinch the dubious third position in the country’s Corona ranking.

In the last three weeks, Andhra Pradesh has emerged as one of the biggest Covid-19 hotspots in the country. With 1,10,297 positive cases, Andhra Pradesh had joined the big ‘1 lakh club’. The state is currently behind Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Delhi. While Maharashtra logged over 3,83,7233 lakh Covid-19 positive cases, followed by Tamil Nadu with more than 2.20 lakh coronavirus cases. With AP caseload rapidly on the rise, the state is not far from unseating Delhi which has over 1.31 lakh Covid-19 cases.

On March 12, Andhra Pradesh reported the first positive case of corona. A man who returned from Italy to Nellore tested positive for the virus. 73 positive cases in India.

On March 15, Jagan Mohan Reddy brushed aside the grave threat of pandemic outbreak in the state stating that “A scare is being created, when there is no panic situation. Covid-19 can be harmful in cases of people above 60 years of age, with diabetes, blood pressure, asthma like conditions. This is a kind of virus that comes and goes. 80% of the people who are healthy are not affected by the disease – it comes and it goes. It may be cured by medication and that medication is paracetamol. The virus is spreading from South Korea. In case anybody coming from foreign countries is found suffering from cough, cold and fever, bleaching powder should be sprayed on their belongings and things they use.”

On April 25, the total number of Covid-19 cases touched 1,016 with 61 more tested positive. Jagan was in ‘don’t press the panic’ button mode. In all these days, YSRCP leaders believed Covid-19 was a TDP hoax and that the virus was the evil creation of Naidu to postpone elections to civic bodies.

Jagan’s press briefings were a circus-like spectacle from his statements early on that paracetamol and bleaching powder can keep corona at bay. After the virus is like common cold and fever that “comes and goes”, Jagan had stated that it “comes but does not go”. It surely doesn’t seem to.

On May 25, AP reported more than 3,000 cases with 56. By June 25, the number of Covid-19 positive cases and fatalities more than doubled to 10,884 and 136 respectively. By July 25, the cases had galloped by more than seven times to 80,858. In other words, in nearly a month period, the state reported 70,000 Covid-19 cases. The fatalities too soared to 933 on July 25 from 136 on June 25. In other words, the number of deaths saw a significant jump of more than 842 cases in just 26 days.

The virus affected the frontline warriors with no medical equipment such as PPEs, N95 masks and gloves, but the government claimed there were enough supplies. Instead of addressing shortage of medical supplies, the Jagan government blamed everyone else but itself.

In Southern States, Andhra Pradesh has continued to drive India’s novel Coronavirus numbers which have been touching new highs every day for the last one week hovering around 6,000-8,000 cases. As the state had remained the biggest contributor of Covid-19 cases for the last three weeks beating states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Telangana in the South in single-day spikes, Jagan had recently stated that none will be spared by Covid-19.

“Every single person can contract the infection. No one can stop the spread of the virus. We have to live with it,” Jagan had said. With the Chief Minister’s statement, the public confidence in the government has eroded coming as it does at a time when the onus of infusing confidence lies largely on the political dispensations.