The State reported four more COVID-19 deaths and 338 new infections in the 24 hours ending Thursday morning. The toll increased to 7,108 with a death rate of 0.80% and the tally reached 8,82,286.
The recovery rate increased to 98.82% with 328 new recoveries during the period. With this, the total number of recoveries reached 8,71,916. The number of active cases now stood at 3,262.
Meanwhile, December witnessed the lowest number of infections, deaths and positivity rate in the last five to six months.
Only 14,222 infections were reported in December while the number was 44,716 in November. In other words, 68% fewer cases were reported in December. Similarly, 116 deaths were reported in December against 302 in November.
However, the death rate in December (0.82%) was higher than that in November (0.68%). The positivity rate of 17.67 lakh samples tested in December was 0.80%, which was the lowest since May.
In the last one day, 61,148 samples, with a positivity rate of 0.55%, were tested, and so far 1.18 crore samples, with 7.46% positivity rate, were tested. The tests per million ratio increased to 2.22 lakh.
The four new deaths occurred in Guntur, Kadapa, Visakhapatnam and West Godavari districts.
Chittoor reported 65 new infections and it was followed by Krishna (44), East Godavari (42), Guntur (38), Visakhapatnam (34), Kadapa (20), West Godavari (19), Nellore (18), Anantapur (16), Prakasam (15), Srikakulam (13), Vizianagaram (8) and Kurnool (6).
Nearly 50% of the cases (6,720) were reported in the three districts of Chittoor, Krishna and Guntur in December, while Vizianagaram and Kurnool reported only 333 and 326 infections respectively.
Lowest recovery rate
Similarly, 25% of the deaths reported in December occurred in Krishna (29 fatalities), which had highest death rate and lowest recovery rate. It was followed by Guntur (16) and Chittoor (14). East Godavari and Srikakulam reported no death in December.
The district-wise tallies were as follows: East Godavari (1,23,695), West Godavari (93,852), Chittoor (86,145), Guntur (74,757), Anantapur (67339), Nellore (62,094), Prakasam (62,029), Kurnool (60,561), Visakhapatnam (59,168), Kadapa (54,992), Krishna (47,786), Srikakulam (45,951) and Vizianagaram (41,022).
