27 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Telangana on Thursday, taking the state's total tally to 154. Three patients were aso discharged, leaving the state with 128 active cases.
The Telangana Health Department said that 17 people have been discharged so far while 9 people have died due to the coronavirus in the state.
The spike in cases comes after the government identified attendees of a Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi last month. All nine people who have died in the state so far, had attended the event.
Over 1,000 from Telangana attended the meeting in Delhi, State Health Minister Eatala Rajender told reporters on Wednesday. Out of this, over 600 were residing under the limits of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) alone.
Meanwhile, a man who died of COVID-19 on Wednesday was given a quiet burial at a graveyard in Telangana's Nirmal town in the early hours of Thursday.
The body of the 49-year-old man, who died while undergoing treatment at Gandhi Hospital, was shifted to the town, about 200 km from Hyderabad, in an ambulance.
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.
Three more persons have died of COVID-19 and 30 new positive cases were reported in Telangana on Wednesday. All 30 of them had attended the event in Delhi.
According to a statement released from the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) late on Wednesday night, two persons died at the government-run Gandhi Hospital while one succumbed at Yashoda, a private hospital.
After a review meeting chaired by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao till midnight, the government urged those who went to Markaz, their family members and those who came in contact with them to undergo tests.
The statement said that since the virus was spreading through those who went to Markaz, they all should undergo tests without failure.
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IANS inputs