VISAKHAPATNAM: Andhra Pradesh breached the 20-lakh Covid-19 case mark to reach 20,00,038 as the state added 1,435 new infections on Friday.
The toll increased to 13,702 as six more patients succumbed to the disease.
The latest 10-lakh cases came in a mere 119 days after the state crossed the first 10-lakh case mark on April 23. This is far less than the time taken for the state to record even the first one-lakh cases (137 days) or the ninth one-lakh cases (158 days).
To put things in perspective, the state took more than a year (407 days) to log the first 10 lakh infections. The intensity of the second wave can be gauged from the fact that the state accumulated 5.9 lakh Covid-19 cases this May alone, equivalent to 35% of the cumulative cases that surfaced in the state by then.
While it took more than six months to reach the peak during the first wave last year, the state surpassed the previous numbers in hardly two months since the presumed beginning of the second wave from the first week of March 2021.
Andhra Pradesh reported 11,766 new Covid-19 cases on April 23, just two months into the second wave, outnumbering the earlier highest one-day spike of 10,830 cases recorded on August 26 last year in the first wave.
From an average 70 daily infections in February (2021), Andhra Pradesh witnessed a sudden surge in the transmission numbers that reached its peak with 24,171 cases on May 16 in the second wave. The unprecedented spurt in the case numbers in the second wave led to a severe shortage of oxygen and ICU beds and other Covid-19 related facilities between the second half of April and the first week of June.
After hitting the peak, the daily case numbers quickly dropped to the 500-1,000 range in the first wave. But even after overcoming the peak three months ago, the daily infections in the second wave have settled around 1,500 to 3,000 range for the last several weeks.
There are currently 15,472 active cases with 19,70,864 cumulative recoveries and 13,702 fatalities.
