COVID-19 cases continued to soar in Telangana as it claimed four more lives and another 117 people tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday. There was no let-up either in the number of deaths or new cases. The fresh fatalities pushed the death toll to 67.
According to the Director of Public health and Family Welfare, 49 more deportees from Saudi Arabia were among the people tested positive. As many as 66 locals and two migrants also tested positive. With this, the overall tally of COVID-19 cases in the state mounted to 2,256.
The authorities on Wednesday had announced that 94 deportees from Saudi Arabia had tested positive. Thursday's numbers pushed the figure to 143, making them the third biggest category after local cases and migrants.
The Centre has airlifted 458 deportees from Saudi Arabia. These deportees have been quarantined in government centres in the state, the Health Department said.
As many as 175 migrants have also tested positive for the coronavirus. They all had returned to Telangana from various states following easing of lockdown norms.
Thirty foreign evacuees have also been tested positive so far. There were no cases in this category for the last two days.
The state continued to maintain a good recovery rate of 60%. As many as 1,345 patients have recovered. The mortality rate stands at 3%.
Meanwhile, state Health Minister Eatala Rajender, who held a meeting with doctors and other officials, urged them to work with the aim of reducing deaths in the state-run Gandhi hospital where patients who test positive are treated.
He observed that only those who are suffering from chronic diseases are losing their life (after testing positive for coronavirus) and not just because of the virus, an official release said.
In a separate interaction with medical and health officials, Rajender emphasised on medical surveillance for early identification of people with symptoms.
The Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) should check for fever symptoms, by visiting the houses allotted to them in the villages every day, he said.
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With IANS and PTI inputs