After surpassing Delhi and Karnataka Andhra Pradesh is now racing ahead to become the country’s second worst-hit state in terms of coronavirus infections.
In the last 24 hours, AP reported another 10,980 new Covid-19 positive cases taking the total number of cases to 2,14,145.
In an alarming trend, the state is breaking its own daily spike in casualties. In the last 24 hours, 97 covid 19 patients succumbed to the infection taking the toll to 1,939.
On Friday, AP reported 89 new COVID-19 deaths. The 97 deaths reported in the last 24 hours is the highest single-day toll reported so far.
The state has been reporting highest single-day surge in the country for nearly a month. In the last 12 days alone, AP reported more than one lakh Covid-19 positive cases.
If AP continues to report more than 10,000 Covid-19 positive cases every single day, the day is not far when the state could unseat Tamil Nadu to claim the dubious second position in the country’s highest number of infections.
Andhra Pradesh has surged past a host of the states to become the country’s third most afflicted by coronavirus. A spike in cases has seen AP leapfrog Karnataka and Delhi to take third spot in numbers of COVID-19 infections. The state with over five crore people has now officially recorded 2,14,145 cases of COVID-19, more than the Karnataka, Delhi and host of other states. But it is still some distance behind Maharashtra which has had 4,79779 confirmed cases.
With 10,980 new cases, AP’s total number of cases climbed to 2,14,145 while Tamil Naidu’s Covid-19 tally stood at
2,85,024.
The state has 85,486 active Covid-19 patients who are currently taking treatment in various hospitals. The last 24 hours, AP conducted more than 64,000 tests. So far, the state has conducted 24,24,393.
While the state administration attributes the alarming rise to heightened testing, experts blame it on the callous approach of the AP government in handling the pandemic and its failure to take the warnings seriously early on.
Jagan has consistently sought to downplay the public health risk of the burgeoning pandemic while his administration has been slow to respond to the crisis.
While experts have cautioned that corona is different from influenza and that the virus appears to be more contagious and more deadly than the flu, especially because no vaccine is available, Jagan said people should not panic about Covid-19 and should be treated like fever and common cold.
“It not as bad as the seasonal flu. It is like fever. It will go if you take proper care, wear masks, take proper diet and improve your immunity. If you take these steps, you can fight corona,” he had prescribed.
In the days that followed as the Covid-19 situation worsened, Jagan had asked people to “learn to live with the virus” and that it will not be surprising if every single is infected with the virus.
Like Roman emperor Nero, Jagan fiddled with everything else but focus on combating the pandemic.
CMs of different states moved quickly to declare states of emergency and closed schools and non-essential businesses malls, cinema halls as a precautionary measure to contain and tackle the spread of virus.
However, Jagan and his administration was busy fighting legal battles on various policies decisions including English medium on government schools, YSRCP colors on government buildings, removal of Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar as SEC, creation of three capitals among others.
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