Witnessing a surge in COVID-19 cases, Telangana has yet again recorded the highest spike in a day with 499 patients testing positive for novel coronavirus and three succumbing to the disease on Friday.
Fifty-one persons were also discharged on Friday. The death toll in the state due to the disease stands at 198. Presently, the state has 2,976 active cases.
Among the 499 patients, 329 are from Hyderabad while the neighbouring district of Rangareddy recorded 129 cases. Telangana tested 2,477 samples out of which 499 tested positive, the health department said in its medical bulletin.
As per the data, in Telangana, the majority of the deceased belonged to the age group of 51-60 (52 persons), followed by 48 deaths belonging to the age group of 61-70, and 42 deaths from 41-50 age group.
The government for the first time disclosed the number of Intensive Care Unit beds, ventilators and beds with oxygen support at the government hospital. According to the department, out of the 17,081 COVID-19 earmarked beds, only 976 of them are occupied. A total of 10,970 isolation beds are vacant, 3,227 beds with oxygen support are vacant, 1,448 ICU beds and 460 beds with ventilator support are vacant.
The government also listed out the government COVID-19 testing centres, which include: Gandhi Medical College; Osmania General Hospital; Fever Hospital; Nizam’s Institute of Medical Science; Institute of Preventive Medicine; Kakatiya Medical College, Warangal; Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology; Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics; Employees’ State Insurance Corporation Medical College and Hospital; and Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Adilabad.
The government has also approved 18 private labs to conduct COVID-19 tests. The tariff for COVID-19 tests is fixed at Rs 2,200 and Rs 2,800 for samples to be collected at home. However, there are several hidden costs like the cost of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) kits and others.