43 new coronavirus cases reported in AP, tally rises to 87

Amaravati(AP), Apr 1 (PTI) A scare gripped Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday with the doubling of coronavirus cases from 44 to 87 overnight, at a time when things appeared to be well under control with only a handful of cases reported, mostly of foreign returnees, in the first fortnight.

The quantum jump in the number of cases was solely on account of those who returned to various parts of the state from the Tabligh-e-Jamaat congregation in Delhi.

Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy said as many as 1,085 people from the state attended the Jamaat congregation in the national capital and returned.

The unexpected spurt in Covid-19 positive cases pushed the state administration into an overdrive to place all the suspects under quarantine while simultaneously treating the afflicted persons, as fear lurked over the untraced possible carriers.

Of the total 85 active Coronavirus cases in the state, 70 are related to the Jamaat people and their close contacts.

Ten were foreign returnees and six others their contacts, state Nodal Officer Arja Srikanth said.

Barring two north coastal districts of Vizianagaram and Srikakulam, all others registered Corona cases in the state, with Prakasam and Kadapa topping the chart with 15 cases each.

All those who tested positive have been sent for quarantine, he said in a release.

The Chief Minister in a televised address asked people not to attach any stigma to Coronavirus patients but treat them with compassion, saying it was just like any common fever or flu.

"Staying in isolation is the only key to check the spread of coronavirus as it gets transmitted only through human-to- human contact. It easily gets cured through medication," he sought to assure the people.

Jagan pointed out that even Prime Ministers of some countries and their kin too got afflicted with coronavirus but got successfully cured.

"Of the 585 of them tested so far, 70 turned positive while test results of another 500 people is awaited. We are yet to trace 21 others related to the Jamaat," Reddy said.

West Godavari district, which did not have a single Covid-19 case till Tuesday, recorded 13 positive cases while Kadapa district too reported 15.

Five new cases were added in Chittoor district, four in Prakasam, two each in East Godavari, SPS Nellore and one each in Krishna and Visakhapatnam districts, a bulletin of the Medical and Health Department said.

A total of 1,313 samples were tested so far, including 218 of foreign returnees and 543 Jamaat returnees.

Of them, 87 turned positive and the rest negative, it said.