Andhra records 253 new Covid cases, one death

Amaravati, March 17 (IANS) The number of active Covid-19 cases continued to shoot up in Andhra Pradesh, reaching 1,694 on Wednesday as the state recorded 253 more cases.The new cases took the state's tally over 8.92 lakh, even as 125 more persons recovered from the disease in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries past the 8.83 lakh mark.Wednesday is the second consecutive day that the state logged more than 200 cases.Guntur district reported the highest number of cases at 69, followed by Chittoor (39), East Godavari (29), Visakhapatnam (27), Kurnool (26), Anantapur (15), Krishna (11), Srikakulam (10), Kadapa, and Prakasam (7 each), Nellore (5) and Vizianagaram, and West Godavari (4 each).East Godavari's tally has crossed 1.24 lakh, the highest among all Andhra districts, while the state's positivity rate fell to 6.11 per cent, which is still higher than the national average of 4.9 per cent.Meanwhile, one more person succumbed to the virus, raising the state's Covid death toll to 7,186.
--IANS sth/vd