Two Covid deaths in Andhra, eight cases: Is this a cause for concern?

4 min readHyderabadUpdated: Jul 14, 2026 02:51 PM IST

Andhra Pradesh's health department has initiated contact tracing and testing measures. Representational image/file

The Andhra Pradesh health department is on alert following two Covid-19 deaths in Kadapa district. These are the first Covid-related deaths in the state since 2022.

Eight other persons also tested positive for the virus and are being monitored, health department officials said. But they also said that these are sporadic cases that should not be considered a fresh outbreak.

Under what circumstances did the two deaths occur?

The first victim was a 60-year-old man admitted to Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences in Tirupati. He was later shifted to Christian Medical College in Vellore, in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu. The patient had extensive comorbidities, including diabetes and kidney disease, and died while undergoing treatment on June 28. A postmortem RT-PCR test confirmed a positive diagnosis for Covid-19.

The next fatality was, on July 7, that of a 46-year-old man admitted to the Government General Hospital in Kadapa. The patient, who was admitted with acute breathlessness and persistent cough, succumbed to severe bilateral lung damage and pneumonia. Extensive lung damage consistent with Covid-19 was detected when he underwent a chest CT scan.

What measures has the state taken?

In response to the sudden occurrence of this cluster, the state’s health department has initiated contact tracing and testing measures. “Five cases were identified in Kadapa and the rest three were their contacts. We are monitoring the situation closely and there is no need to panic as this is a sporadic case,” Andhra Pradesh Health Secretary S Suresh Kumar told The Indian Express. He said that this was “not an outbreak” and that surveillance and contact tracing measures are already in place.

Medical practitioners, however, are concerned whether this sudden occurrence of cases was caused by a more virulent strain of the Omicron subvariant.

“Because there was rapid development of respiratory distress among patients, it is suspected that the current spike could be caused by an aggressive Omicron subvariant,” a doctor associated with the District Medical Office in Kadapa told The Indian Express.

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Is this a matter of concern?

The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 is considered to be highly contagious and spreads at a rapid pace even in the lungs. Healthcare systems in the country were overwhelmed at first by the spread of the Omicron variant. Children were also affected by the Omicron wave, unlike the previous Delta waves. However, Omicron infections have generally caused less severe disease on average than earlier variants owing to increased population immunity.

“The concern is that the variant could quickly spread through the population and put stress on the healthcare mechanism,” a government doctor said. The state, however, is not expecting this. Health Secretary Kumar said: “In the past six days, no new cases have been reported. So we believe that this was just a sporadic incident”.

The state government has sent throat and nasal swabs of the affected people, including those who died, to Pune’s National Institute of Virology (NIV) for genome sequencing. “The results of this are awaited. We expect this to come within the next couple of days,” Kumar said.

A committee of five specialists have also ruled out the possibility of a new subvariant, Kumar said.

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What can be done now?

The basic effort of the state government is to “wait and watch”, top officials said. Meanwhile, the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu, where the first Andhra patient died, in a statement said that “there was no evidence of a high-severity strain circulating in the state and that case numbers remain lower than in previous years”.

The Tamil Nadu government said the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine is monitoring the situation. The NIV has found that the currently circulating strain causes only mild illness, it said. However, elderly persons, pregnant women, people with chronic health conditions, and those with weakened immunity have been advised to continue taking precautions.

Nikhila Henry is an Assistant Editor at The Indian Express, based in Hyderabad. With a career spanning 17 years, she has established herself as an authoritative voice on South Indian affairs, specialising in the complex intersections of politics, education, and social justice.

Experience & Career: Nikhila commenced her journalism career in 2007 as an education correspondent for The Times of India in Hyderabad,where she gained recognition for her coverage of student politics. Her professional trajectory includes a four-year tenure at The Hindu, where she focused on minority affairs and social welfare. In 2019, she took on a leadership role as the South Bureau Chief for The Quint, where she directed regional coverage across all five South Indian states. Her expansive career also includes a tenure at the BBC in New Delhi and contributions to prestigious international outlets such as The Sunday Times (London) and HuffPost India.

Expertise & Focus Areas

Nikhila’s reportage is marked by a deep-seated understanding of grassroots movements and institutional policy. Her core focus areas include:

Regional Politics: Comprehensive analysis of the socio-political dynamics across South India.

Education & Student Movements: Chronicling the evolution of Indian academics and the rise of youth activism.

Minority Affairs: Rigorous reporting on the welfare, rights, and challenges facing marginalized communities.

National Beat: Elevating regional stories to national prominence through investigative and on-ground reporting.

Authoritativeness & Trust

A respected figure in Indian media, Nikhila is not only a seasoned reporter but also an accomplished author and editor. She authored the critically acclaimed book The Ferment: Youth Unrest in India and edited Caste is Not a Rumour, a collection of writings by Rohith Vemula. Her dual background in daily news reporting and long-form authorship allows her to provide readers with a nuanced, historically-informed perspective on contemporary Indian society.

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