Amaravati(AP), July 19 (PTI) A staggering 5,041 Covid-19 cases, the single largest number in a day so far, were registered in Andhra Pradesh as the overall aggregate inched closer to the 50,000 mark on Sunday.

Also, the state saw the highest spike in deaths in a day as 56 coronavirus patients succumbed, pushing the toll to 642, a government bulletin said.

Also Read | Mumbai Reports 1,046 New COVID-19 Cases And 64 Deaths in Past 24 hours: Live News Breaking and Coronavirus Updates on July 19, 2020.

Among the dead was a 50-year-old journalist working for a Tamil television channel in Tirupati.

He had been admitted to a COVID care facility last week and lost his battle against the dreaded virus today.

Also Read | Maharashtra Reports Biggest Spike of 9,518 Coronavirus Cases in Past 24 Hours; COVID-19 Tally Reaches 3,10,455, Death Toll Jumps to 11,854.

It took three months for the state to register the first 5,000 coronavirus cases, from March 12 when the first one was reported.

But it happened in a matter of a day as AP has been clearly witnessing a massive surge in the infection rate, particularly in the last one week when the number rose from 29,168 to 49,650.

It said 1,106 patients got cured and discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours.

After 31,148 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours ending 9 am on Sunday, the aggregate number of people screened for coronavirus in the state crossed the 13 lakh-mark to reach 13.15 lakh at the rate of 24,635 per million population and a positivity rate of 3.77 per cent.

As the number of cases has been shooting up over the past few days, the recovery rate fell further to 46.10 per cent after a total of 22,890 patients got cured, the government data said.

There are now 26,118 active cases in the state.

East Godavari district now topped the state in the total number of Covid-19 positive cases with 6,146, pushing Kurnool to the second spot with 6,045 cases.

Anantapuramu district also crossed the 5,000 cases mark as it showed an overall tally of 5,141 on Sunday.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)