Amaravati, Jul 31 (IANS): Andhra Pradesh continues to bear the brunt of the Covid pandemic with the number of new cases increasing with every passing day. On Friday too, the state reported an all-time high of 10,376 new cases in the 24 hours ending at 9 a.m.

This is the third consecutive day that record highs of daily Covid cases are being reported from the state, which on a daily basis are the highest among all the states in the country. On Thursday, the day's Covid count was 10,167 and the death toll was 68, while 10,093 new Covid cases and 65 deaths were reported on Wednesday.

State health officials said that 10,376 new cases, and 68 deaths were recorded in the 24 hours ending 9 a.m. on Friday. Andhra Pradesh's overall Covid tally has breached the 1.4 lakh mark and now stands at 1,40, 933. In all, 61,699 tests including 35,024 rapid antigen tests, were conducted in the latest update cycle reported on Friday.

On Friday too, three districts reported fresh cases in four digit figures, while the remaining ten districts reported three digit Covid numbers. Anantapur topped the list with 1387 new cases followed by East Godavari with 1215 cases, and Kurnool with 1124 cases. Krishna reported the lowest tally of 313 cases during the past 24 hours.

On Friday, the death count remained at the all time high of 68 that was reported the previous day also. The overall death toll now stands at 1349.

As many as 3822 persons were reported recovered and discharged from hospitals and Covid treatment centres on Friday. As on date, there are 75,720 active cases in the state, while 63,864 persons have been declared as cured and discharged.

Meanwhile, all the Covid patients belonging to the categories of returnees from other states and countries have been reported cured and discharged on Friday. There have been no new additions to the Covid tally from returnees in both the categories as per the recent updates.