Just a few days back, the Chief Minister laughed off the virus prescribing ‘Paracetamol’ even as Opposition leader N Chandrababu expressed serious concern to Covid-19. Jagan called it a hoax. Today, the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread rapidly in Andhra Pradesh, infecting more than 303 people even as the government tries to slow the spread by enforcing lockdown and physical distancing guidelines. On Monday, AP reported 37 new positive corona cases all linked to Tablighi Jamaat religious congregation in South Delhi’s Nizamuddin.

AP’s surging infection rates are propelled by a startling number of cases in Kurnool which continued to top the virus tally in the state. The district reported 18 new cases taking its tally to 74 and triggering alarm bells in the government and the general public. Till Saturday, the district reported only four cases. Kurnool has now become the fulcrum of attention amid the Tablighi Jamaat episode with a majority of the congregation attendees hailing from this region in Andhra Pradesh. The AP government has estimated that more than 1,000 people from the state might have attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Markaz in Nizamuddin. In Rayalaseema alone, at least 150 people who were tested positive for the virus have been linked to Tablighi Jamaat congregation.

The State government has placed Kurnool on a high alert and declared 24-hour curfew in Nandyal. The state government has directed the district officials to strictly implement all the guidelines keeping in view the surge in coronavirus positive cases in the last few days. The district administration has intensified contact tracing since most of the positive cases were identified to be Jamaat returnees. Nellore reported 18 new cases, the total number of cases stand at 52, Kadapa reported four new cases pushing its total to 21.

The state government had attributed the spurt in Covid-19 cases to the large numbers of people from AP who returned homes after attending the Tablighi Jamaat congregation. In a recent video conference with cabinet colleagues, Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had appealed to the people to refrain from blaming any particular community for the spread of the virus in the state.

With a sudden spike in positive cases of corona in AP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday called up the Chief Minister and enquired about the measures being initiated by the state government to contain the spread of the contagion.

TDP president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu believes that AP still isn’t testing enough people to detect the outbreak’s true spread.As corona cases soar past 303 in AP with around 34 new cases reported on Monday, he said the state government should ramp up testing of coronavirus cases to detect if there were more cases that are probably going unreported. “Not conducting medical tests is not a good sign. This will prove to be detrimental to the people as the virus will spread if the government tries to under report or remain complacent in conducting medical tests,” he said. Naidu said the government’s response has been scattered and passive with hospitals running low on personal protective equipment and ventilators for patients.

With just 3 samples testing positive between 10 a.m. and 10.30 p.m., the number of COVID-19 cases in Andhra Pradesh climbed marginally to 164, on Friday. According to the bulletin issued by the state’s nodal officer, two cases were reported from East Godavari district while the third case came in from Visakhapatnam.

In the preceding 12 hours, upto 9 a.m. on Friday morning, 12 new cases had been reported taking the state’s tally to 161 COVID-19 cases.

Friday also saw two COVID-19 patients being discharged after they were declared cured by the authorities. One of the recovered person is a 23-year old man who returned from Newscastle in the UK. On arrival in Ongole on March 15, he was admitted to hospital and treated following diagnosis with COVID-19.

The second patient who was discharged from hospital on Friday was a 22-year-old male who returned to the state from the UK on March 18. He was admitted to a hospital in Kakinada and given treatment.

Both the recovered patients wre discharged when they tested negative thrice, as specified in COVID-19 protocols.

With this, 4 persons have been cured and discharged in Andhra Pradesh.

The number of Covid-19 positive cases in Andhra Pradesh rose to 143 on Thursday as 32 people tested positive since Wednesday night.

As many as 99 of those tested positive had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi.

According to a medical bulletin released by the Health Department at 6 p.m. Thursday, 123 samples were tested since 10 a.m. Three samples tested positive in the afternoon while eight more were tested positive in the evening. Results of 409 samples are still awaited.

A bulletin issued in the morning said 21 samples had tested positive since Wednesday night.

A total of 1,085 people from the state went for the Nizamuddin Markaz meet last month. Out of them, 758 were traced and their samples were taken.

Various departments in the districts were working to trace the remaining people.

The number of positive cases has doubled during the last 24 hours. As many as 67 people had tested positive on Wednesday.

Out of 1,800 samples tested, 758 samples were of those who attended Delhi event and 543 of their contacts.

The authorities also screened samples of 226 who returned from abroad and 130 of their contacts. Samples of 143 others were also tested.