The Telangana High Court on Thursday directed the state government to take steps to monitor slums in Hyderabad and ensure that there is no outbreak of coronavirus in the state capital.
The court also asked the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government to distribute masks and sanitisers through the Public Distribution System (PDS) for free, to those who were below the poverty line.
A two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice RS Chahuan and Justice A Abhishek Reddy, was hearing a group of Public Interest Litigations (PILs) that had been filed to seek action to curb the spread of coronavirus in the state.
The court sought to know what facilities were available with the Telangana government and asked if an adequate number of beds for hospitals and equipment for testing and treatment were present.
Stating that there were isolation wards with all necessary facilities at Gandhi hospital, Chest hospital and Fever hospital in Hyderabad, Dr K Shankar, director of the Institute of Preventive Medicine, told the court that Health department officials could test around 150 to 200 samples a day. He also said that awareness programmes were being taken up, including in slums, on the need for maintaining hygiene to prevent the spread of the disease.
Advocate General BS Prasad told the court that a control room had been formed and call centres were also operational to assist citizens and allay any fears that they may have.
The court asked the state government to come up with a strategy to set up screening at all major railway and bus stations in the state, as the first patient who tested positive had travelled from Bengaluru to Hyderabad in a bus. Stating that a team had been sent to Kerala to study how they fought off the spread of coronavirus, state authorities told the court that a decision would soon be taken in this regard.
The case was posted for March 12 for further hearing.
Two persons, including a techie, had tested negative for coronavirus, Telangana Health Minister Etela Rajender told reporters on Thursday. While one of them is a software engineer who had recently returned from Italy, the other is a sanitation worker of a private hospital.
The sanitation worker was one of those who came in contact with a techie, the lone positive case recorded in the state so far.
The minister said people need not panic as the state has not recorded any case of coronavirus contracted locally.
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