For the fourth straight day, Andhra Pradesh reported double digit rise in coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours as the state prepares for a gradual easing of its lockdown from next week.

The state government confirmed 71 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday, taking the total in the state to 1,403, according to the latest health bulletin. The state seems to be in the spotlight as it struggles to deal with a wave of infections at a time the country is witnessing a downward trend in the number of Covid-19 cases.

There were more than 82 infections in the previous 72 hours, compared with 74 new infections a day earlier and 73 the day before that.

While no new deaths due to Covid-19 were reported, 321 patients were discharged from hospitals in different districts of the state, a government bulletin said. Around 1,051 patients are currently undergoing treatment in various hospitals. Fourty three fresh cases were registered in Kurnool, four each in Guntur and Krishna districts, three in Chitoor.

Numbers show a sharp upward trend with at least 250 new cases reported in the last week. While Telangana showed a steady decline in the number of coronavirus cases in single digits in the last one week, AP’s corona figures seem to be in acceleration phase. The health principal secretary Jawahar Reddy attributed the higher number of corona cases to the increased number of testing. “We have stepped up testing. We have also stepped up community surveillance in the corona virus affected clusters and hence more cases are getting detected,” Jawahar Reddy said on Wednesday. This implies that the Opposition was correct when it said the government was not testing enough

Kurnool continues to have highest number of cases at 386, followed by Guntur and Krishna with 287 and 240 cases respectively, according to a health bulletin released by the government on Thursday.

The surge in number of cases was because of the lopsided policies of Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy who consistently downplayed the public health risk of the burgeoning pandemic while the state administration has been slow to respond to the crisis. Chandrababu Naidu squarely blamed the state government’s lack of foresight in tackling the virus. The government had spent much of its time in vendetta politics, was more focussed on elections to civic bodies than containing corona virus apart from being caught in a vortex of legal battles and personal attacks against political detractors

Meanwhile, the state government on Wednesday announced that there will be considerable lockdown relaxations in many districts in the state from May 3. Experts fear that if the complete lockdown is lifted there could be a second wave of infections in the state. They fear community transmission will take place as people move around and it will be difficult to contain the virus. ICMR and Health Ministry research shows that community transmission has occurred in 36 districts in 15 States. This confirmation must lead to an expansion and change in testing strategy especially in high focus areas for the lockdown to be more meaningful.

“If you lift the lockdown, you must make sure you have a strategy that will minimise the risk of a secondary pandemic wave that could cause more deaths,” senior TDP leader and former MLA Anuradha opined.