Telangana continued to witness a surge in COVID-19 cases as the state reported 945 new infections on Tuesday. With seven new deaths reported from across the state, the death toll in the state has risen to 260.
Telangana has tested around 3,457 samples in the past 24 hours, out of which 945 of them tested positive for SARS CoV-2 while 2,512 were found negative for the virus.
This takes the total number of active cases in the state to 8,785. Till date, the state has reported a total of 16,339 positive cases of coronavirus.
A total of 1,712 people were discharged on Tuesday. Till date, a total of 7,294 people recovered and discharged from hospitals so far.
Among the 945 cases reported on Tuesday, Hyderabad recorded the highest of cases at 869, followed by the neighbouring Rangareddy district which reported 29 new cases. 21 cases were reported in Sangareddy, followed by Medchal which saw 13 new cases.
The remaining cases were reported from other districts — Karimnagar, Siddipet, Nirmal Mahabubnagar, Suryapet, Khammam, Vikarabad, and Nizamabad — which together saw 19 cases.
Telangana has tested 88,563 samples till date and as many as 72,224 have tested negative in the state so far. Amid accusations of a 'flawed' model of conducting tests on samples, Telangana Health Minister Eatala Rajender recently stated that they will conduct 50,000 sample tests in Hyderabad in the coming span of ten days.
As the number of cases mounts in Hyderabad limits, the Telangana government is considering reimposing lockdown in city limits to contain the spread of the virus. A cabinet meeting led by CM K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) will be held later this week to take a decision in this regard.
Observing the trends of the increasing number of cases, the Director of Telangana Public Health and Family Welfare in the media bulletin said, "It is being observed that there is a lot of mobility and movement of people from all walks of life and of all age groups. Citizens are travelling across the state and most of them are not following the basic preventive measures like wearing a mask, maintaining safe physical distancing, cough etiquette and hand hygiene. Majority of the persons are undertaking non-essential travel which has to be avoided. There has been a surge in the cases since the relaxation of lockdown.”