Coronavirus continues to take toll in the South Coastal Andhra Pradesh as 10 more patients died and 1,600 persons tested positive in a span of 24 hours.
The toll in the region rose to 1,189 as seven patients in Nellore district and three others in Praksam district died in the 24 hours ending 9 a.m. on Sunday, according to a health bulletin released by the State government. With this, 579 patients in Nellore district and 610 patients in Prakasam have lost the the battle against the virus so far.
The capability of the health infrastructure was put to test as the number of active cases touched a new high of 12,299, with 1,258 people in Nellore district and 353 in Prakasam district contracting the infection in the last 24 hours. With this, the cumulative tally rose to 1,42,691 in the region.
The number of new cases was over 1,100 more when compared to recoveries in the region during the period. As a result, the recovery rate, which was over 99% in the beginning of the month, dropped to 90.54%. As many as 248 patients in Prakasam district and another 208 patients in Nellore district recovered from the illness in the last 24 hours.
60,000 vaccine doses received
Thanks to replenishment of the vaccine stocks by the Centre, health officials have geared up to administer the second dose to all persons who had taken the first dose from Monday. Health officials in the two districts received about 60,000 doses of vaccine, the health officials said.
“All people above the age of 18 years should compulsorily register their names on the Co-Win app for vaccine,” said Nellore Additional District Medical and Health Officer R. Swarnalatha said, adding that 91 session sites have been set up for the third phase of vaccination drive.
‘No shortage of oxygen’
“There is no shortage of beds with oxygen facility,” said Prakasam DMHO P. Ratnavalli, adding that the oxygen bed strength had been augmented to treat the patients.
As many as 827 patients have been allotted beds with oxygen facility and another 368 such beds are available at the 21 designated COVID-19 hospitals in the district, she said, a day after scores of patients requiring oxygen underwent treatment with temporary oxygen cylinders at the reception centre set up at the Government General Hospital in Ongole.
Bed availability
The bed availability status put online by the district administration on Sunday showed that 1,337 of the 1,876 beds at the COVID-19 hospitals, including 17 private ones have been occupied. At the GGH, 147 beds including 65 oxygen beds were available as only 979 beds, including 620 oxygen beds of the total 1,126 have been occupied.
