A gated community in Hyderabad has become a COVID-19 hotspot with 112 confirmed positive cases. The gated community of My Home Jewel in Madinaguda, which has been seeing a surge in cases, saw 11 more people testing positive for the coronavirus on Monday even as Telangana's daily COVID-19 tally crossed the 3,000-mark.
Speaking to media outlets, residents alleged that despite the spike in numbers, there hasn’t been much support from the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). Nand Kishore, General Secretary of My Home Jewel Owners Association told the Times of India that some households have been entirely affected and that measures for quarantine, daily requirements of those recovering from the illness and hospital visits were being arranged by the residents with little or no help from the civic body.
The gated community has nearly 8000 residents and had reported less than 20 cases in 2020. The association said that it had set up a help desk for residents and also arranged for an ambulance to be on standby. Basic amenities like food and medicine are supplied to the affected homes. The association is also sending out periodic updates to those in the community through WhatsApp. GHMC officials however said that they had begun sanitising the buildings in the gated community.
Meanwhile, the COVID-19 status bulletin issued by the state government on Tuesday said that 3,052 new cases were recorded during the last 24-hour period. A total of 1.13 lakh samples were tested during this period. In contrast, the state had reported 2,251 cases on Monday from a test size of 79,027 samples. Seven persons lost their lives, taking the death toll to 1,772. The Director of Public Health and Family Welfare said that the fatality rate in Telangana stands at 0.53% as compared to the national average of 1.3%.
The number of active cases in the state has jumped to 24,131 which includes 16,118 persons who are in home and institutional quarantine. A total of 778 people have recovered from the coronavirus during the 24-hour period, taking the cumulative recoveries to 3.06 lakh. The recovery rate has slipped further to 92.21% but remains above the national average of 89.5%, the bulletin stated.
The greater Hyderabad region reported the highest number of new cases at 406, while its bordering districts, Medchal-Malkajgiri and Rangareddy districts reported 301 and 248 cases, respectively. Nizamabad district, bordering Maharashtra, reported 279 new cases, while Jagtial reported 135, followed by Sangareddy (123), Nirmal (113), Kamareddy (111) and Nalgonda (109). All the remaining districts reported fresh cases in double digits.
(With IANS Inputs)