Amaravati, Jul 1 (IANS): Despite reporting a significant dip in its Covid-19 tally, the overall numbers in Andhra Pradesh have shot past the 15,000-mark, the state nodal officer reported on Wednesday. He said that 657 samples tested positive in the 24 hours ending at 9 a.m. on Wednesday.

The cumulative tally of Covid-19 cases in Andhra Pradesh stands at 15,252, including cases detected among returnees from other states and overseas.

The day count of the state has been showing a downturn over the past 3 days. On Sunday, the tally was 793 and dipped to 704 on Monday.

As many as 342 persons were declared cured and discharged from hospitals on Wednesday. The overall tally of cured persons now stands at 6,988 while 8,071 persons are undergoing treatment at different hospitals in Andhra Pradesh.

A total of 28,239 samples were tested for the virus, taking the overall number of tests conducted till date to 9,18,429 samples. With six deaths reported from different parts of the state, the state's death toll now stands at 193.

On Wednesday, Kurnool and Krishna districts reported 3 deaths each.

Anantapur reported the highest day tally of 118 cases followed by Kurnool with 90, and East Godavari with 80 cases. Guntur with 77 cases and Kadapa with 60 cases are the other districts with high numbers. Srikakulam district was the only district that did not report any new cases in the past 24 hours.

Wednesday saw a further decrease in Covid cases detected among people returning from other states. Only 39 new cases were detected in this category. The day's high of 19 positive cases were detected among Telangana returnees. Similarly, 10 of the Covid positive samples belonged to returnees from Maharashtra, and 3 cases each from Tamil Nadu and Delhi. Apart from this, 2 cases from Karnataka, and 1 case each from Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh were also reported in the past 24 hours.

As of Wednesday, 2,036 persons have tested positive for Covid among the persons who returned from other states. The active cases tally in Andhra Pradesh is 736, while 1,300 persons have been cured till date.

On the foreign returnees front, 7 new cases were reported on Wednesday. While 4 Covid cases were detected among returnees from Kuwait, 2 from Kazakhstan and 1 case from Bahrain (Saudi Arabia) was also reported.

Meanwhile, the cumulative tally of Covid-19 patients in foreign returnees category has climbed to 403, even as 101 persons have been discharged after getting cured. As of Wednesday, 302 persons in this category are undergoing treatment in hospitals.