Infant among 73 new COVID-19 cases in Andhra Pradesh, tally crosses 1300 mark

An 11-month-old baby was among the 73 people who tested positive for coronavirus in Andhra Pradesh in the last 24 hours ending 9 am on Wednesday. The state's Covid-19 tally now crossed the 1300 mark and touched 1,332, the latest government bulletin said.

While 29 more coronavirus patients got cured and discharged from hospitals in the state, the toll remained unchanged at 31, the bulletin said. Official sources, meanwhile, said the 11-month baby was from a family in the worst-affected Kurnool district, whose member returned from the Tablighi Jamaat congregation last month.

The family remained in quarantine for 14 days but during a follow-up test, the baby was found to have caught the virus. "We are getting it checked again," a senior official monitoring the situation in Kurnool said over the phone. Following the Centre's latest guidelines, the child would be kept in home quarantine and monitored, he said.

The kid becomes the youngest in the state to be hit by coronavirus while the oldest, an 85-year-old woman in Anantapuramu district, had recovered and been discharged last week.

Almost all the Covid-19-affected districts in the state, barring SPS Nellore, reported fresh cases on Wednesday with Guntur registered the highest 29. Vizianagaram continued to remain the only corona-free district in AP so far with zero cases. In neighbouring Srikakulam, where the pandemic spread for the first time last week, one fresh case was added on Wednesday, taking the total to five.

As a record 7,727 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, the aggregate tests score in the state touched 88,061, of which 86,729 turned negative. The total number of patients discharged so far went up to 287, leaving 1,014 active cases.