Amaravati, May 4 (IANS): Andhra Pradesh continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic as the number of cases detected keep fluctuating with each passing day. The state nodal officer reported that 67 cases were detected from the samples tested during the 24 hours ending 10 a.m. Monday. With 10,292 samples tested during this period, the state reported the largest number of tests conducted in a single day.

Of the 67 cases detected, 25 were reported from the Kurnool district which continues to top the chart of covid-hit districts in the state. Kurnool districts' tally stands at 491 compared to 338 in Guntur district, and 278 cases in the Krishna district.

The last 24 hours saw only five of the 13 districts report new cases. Guntur, Krishna, Visakhapatnam, Kadapa, and Chittoor districts reported 19, 12, six, four and one cases respectively.

Of the cumulative tally of 1650 cases, 524 persons have been cured and discharged so far. The death toll has remained unchanged at 33 since Friday. The number of active cases in the state is currently 1,093.

Incidentally, after witnessing a relative decline in cases over the past three days, the state reported a slight rise in cases on Monday morning. This is being attributed to the significantly large number of tests, 10292 cases, conducted. In fact, AP has the nation's highest ratio of tests conducted per million. The state conducts 2,345 tests per million population, followed by Tamil Nadu with 1929 and Rajasthan with 1,492 tests per million.

Although the absolute figures, in terms of positive cases continue to grow, and stood at 1,650 on Monday, over the past week the state had shown some apparent progress in the containment of the coronavirus cases. The last seven days' statistics indicate that even as the state ramped up the number of tests conducted every day to above 5,000, there was a relative decline in the number of positive cases detected.

While 58 cases were reported on Sunday morning, the tally of new cases on Saturday morning was 62. Similarly, on Friday the tally was 60 cases, on Thursday it was 71 cases, on Wednesday it was 73, and on Tuesday it was 82, the state's highest single day tally so far.