Telangana witnessed an overwhelming spike of 75 new coronavirus cases on Friday — the highest one-day rise so far in the state. This takes the total count of COVID-19 cases to 229.
Two patients died due to the disease. The deceased were from Shadnagar and Secunderabad in Hyderabad. With this, the state has recorded 11 deaths.
The details of the deceased, including age or whether they suffered comorbidities, were not disclosed. The government also did not disclose if the deceased and the new cases had participated in the Tabligh-e-Jamaat's Markaz in Nizamuddin, New Delhi.
Of the 229 cases, Telangana has 186 active cases. In a silver lining, 15 patients recovered and were discharged on Friday.
The government also informed that they have traced all the individuals who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi’s Nizamuddin area. Earlier, the Telangana government had said that 1,030 persons had attended the Jamaat event, of which 300 were yet to be traced.
The contacts and their family members who were traced have been put in isolation and their samples were collected. The tests are being conducted on a war footing, by engaging all the six labs. The labs are functioning round-the-clock with lab technicians working in three shifts, Health Minister Eatala Rajender said.
Meanwhile, following the attack on a duty doctor at Gandhi Hospital by the kin of a COVID-19 patient, after he succumbed to the disease on Wednesday, police increased security in the hospital by deploying more personnel. Further, as an additional measure, relatives of the patients were not allowed near the main building. The 49-year-old was a native of Nirmal. He was given a quiet burial at a graveyard in Nirmal town in the early hours of Thursday.
Police and municipal authorities made the necessary arrangements for the burial as per the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) stipulated by the Government of India for disposal of bodies of coronavirus patients.
Only a couple of relatives of the deceased were present at the time of the burial. The personnel handling the body with full personal protection equipment disinfected the body before the burial with Sodium Hypochlorite, as per the guidelines by the Union Health Ministry.
The personnel sprayed more chemicals after lowering the body into the grave. They also disinfected the ambulance used to carry the body to the town.