AMARAVATI: The number of deaths due to COVID-19 in Andhra Pradesh has been showing a declining trend over the past few days though the positive cases were increasing by over 10,000 daily.

The COVID-19 tally increased to 5.37 lakh in the state with the addition of 10,175 cases in 24 hours ending 9 am on Thursday. A total of 10,040 patients got cured and discharged while 68 succumbed in 24 hours, according to the media bulletin released by the State Command Control Room.

The positive sign is the number of recoveries is equal to the new cases, which has kept the active number of cases below one lakh. The total recoveries in the State now stood at 4.35 lakh, while the number of active cases is 97,338.

A total of 72,229 samples were tested in the 24 hours ending at 9 am Thursday.

From over 90 a day till a few days ago, the state's COVID-19 mortality count has been just around 70 per day this week and on Thursday it further fell to 68.

The overall mortality rate dipped to 0.87 per cent against the national average of 1.68 per cent. While the infection positivity has been constantly climbing up, reaching 12.27 per cent on Thursday, the recovery rate too showed an improvement to 81.02 per cent.

Kurnool district, which was once the major COVID-19 hotspot in the state, crossed the 50,000 gross cases mark but more than 45,000 of the infected had already recovered. Srikakulam district crossed the 30,000 mark, having over 6,600 active cases, according to the bulletin. In 24 hours,

East Godavari, Prakasam and West Godavari reported more than 1,100 fresh positive cases while Chittoor had more than 900 additions.