Amaravati, May 29 (IANS): For the first time in almost 2 weeks, Andhra Pradesh reported a significant dip in daily tally of new coronavirus cases on Friday with 33 more patients in the last 24 hours. It is far lower than 54 new cases reported in the preceding 24-hour cycle.

In fact, the last time Andhra Pradesh reported a single-day tally lower than Friday's figure was 25 cases reported on May 17.

The number of active cases has now fallen to 777. With death of one coronavirus patient in Kurnool district, the death toll touched 60 on Friday morning.

Friday's tally included 6 persons that had travel histories to the Koyambedu market in Chennai. While Chittoor district reported 4 new cases, Nellore district reported 2.

The state Nodal Officer reported that the state's total now stands at 2,874 as of 10 am on Friday.

Andhra Pradesh's tally of patients among foreign returnees remains unchanged at 111 since Wednesday.

As many as 79 patients were discharged from hospitals on Friday, taking the tally of cured patients to 2,037 in Andhra Pradesh.

The officer reported that 11,638 samples were tested during the past 24 hours as against 9,858 tested during the preceding cycle.

As per data available till Thursday, the state's average in terms of tests conducted per million population stands at 6,409, below Delhi's 9,454, and Jammu and Kashmir's 10,753.

However, in terms of tests conducted, Andhra Pradesh with 34,22,236 tests till Thursday lags behind Rajasthan's 3,46,427 tests, Maharashtra's 4,05,020 tests, and Tamil Nadu's 4,42,320. A total of 33,62,136 tests hae been conducted across India.

On Thursday, Andhra Pradesh's mortality rate of 1.82 per cent ranked 12th among all the states.

Meanwhile, coronavirus cases among returnees from other states climbed to 345 from 293. However, the tally of active cases fell to 156, as 22 persons were discharged on Friday.