Amaravati, Aug 22 (IANS): Andhra Pradesh's Covid-19 caseload shot up to 3,45,216 on Saturday with 10,276 more people testing positive, while 97 fresh fatalities pushed its coronavirus death toll to 3,189, health officials said.

Andhra Pradesh is the third worst affected state in the country after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu in terms of the number of Covid-19 cases and the fifth in the highest number of deaths after Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Delhi.

According to a statement by the health department, 13 fatalities were reported from Chittoor district, 11 from Anantapur district and 10 from Nellore. 8 people each succumbed in East Godavari, West Godavari, Kadapa, Kurnool and Prakasam districts, 6 each in Guntur and Visakhapatnam, 5 in Srikakulam and 3 each in Krishna and Vizianagaram districts.

During the last 24 hours, 1,321 cases were reported from the East Godavari district. As many as 1,220 cases were reported from Chittoor, 1,033 from West Godavari, 1,020 from Anantapur, 943 from Nellore, 850 from Kurnool, 693 from Prakasam.

The period also saw 8,593 people recovering from the virus. With this the cumulative recoveries rose to 2,52,638. The recovery rate in the state stands at 72.86 per cent against the national average of 74.30 per cent.

The state now has 89,389 active cases with maximum 16,707 active cases in East Godavari, followed by 9,938 in Chittoor, 7,237 in Kurnool and 7,115 in Vizianagaram.

During the last 24 hours ending 9 a.m. Saturday, the authorities conducted 61,469 tests. With this the state has so far tested 31,91,326 samples.

Andhra Pradesh stands fourth after Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra in the number of tests. However, it ranks first in terms of tests per million with a figure of 59,763. With a 10.82 per cent positivity rate, it fares better than states like Maharashtra (18.79 per cent), Karnataka (11.43) and Telangana (11.72).