The coronavirus has claimed 20 lives in the south coastal Andhra region—11 in Prakasam district and nine in Nellore district— in the last 24 hours. With this, the toll in the two districts has gone up to 381, a health bulletin released by the government said.
The toll went up to 202 in Prakasam as eleven more patients died. The victims include one person who died at the CHC at Podili, which reported 13 cases, the daily status report compiled by the Prakasam administration said.
In Nellore, nine more patients succumbed to the virus, taking the toll to 179. As many as 58 patients have died in less than a week in Prakasam. Two of them succumbed while being rushed to a COVID-19 hospital. As many as 1,223 persons—588 in Nellore and 635 in Prakasam— werer tested positive, taking the tally in the two districts to 33,056, including 19,888 in Nellore. The health authorities had some reprieve as 1,413 patients—1,065 in Nellore and 348 in Prakasam —were discharged on recovery.
With the overcrowding of patients, the distance between the beds was reduced to accommodate more patients at the Government General Hospital(GGH) in Ongole which reported 83 new positive cases in the last 24 hours, taking the tally to over 3,000. As many as 48 patients were put in the ICU as their health condition remained critical.
With the district administration encouraging treatment at home, more than 3,000 of the toal 5326 patients in the district opted for the same, while another 1,000 patients are undergoing treatment at various COVID-19 care centres.
Energy Minister Balineni Srinivasa Reddy, who recently recovered from the infection, reviewed the situation during the District Agriculture Advisory Committee meeting in Ongole. He distributed medicines to those who were undergoing treatment in their homes.
Containment clusters
As many as 14 new containment clusters were declared in Prakasam district as the virus spread to remote tribal village of Dornala close to Nallamalla forests. The cluster containment action plan is being implemented in 23 very active clusters and 270 active clusters. New casess were reported from Donakonda, Karamchedu, K.K. Mitla, Inkollu, S.N. Padu and Kothapatnam.
