Telangana Chief Secretary (CS) Somesh Kumar has been tested positive for COVID-19, as per the sources of PTI. The reports in regional media close to CS said that he took the vaccination on April 2 and had slight fever on Monday, prompting him to go for the test, which turned out to be positive.
Officials who met with the CS were advised to undergo COVID-19 tests immediately if they have any symptoms. Meanwhile, as the surge in Covid-19 cases continues in Telangana, Somesh Kumar held a meeting on Tuesday and directed the officials to double Covid testing and vaccinations. He held a video conference with District Collectors and senior officers to review measures for management of Covid pandemic in the state.
During the video conference that lasted for over two hours, the Chief Secretary issued numerous instructions covering the entire scope of Covid management including testing, tracing, treating, vaccination and enforcement of Covid appropriate behaviour.
Somesh Kumar directed the Collectors to steeply increase and double the number of tests being done on a daily basis in order to cast the net wider and identify as many Covid positive persons as possible.
He said that this would help in early identification and isolation of positive cases which would, in turn, help in controlling the spread of disease. Early identification would also enable early start of treatment which would reduce the probability of cases becoming serious.
Collectors were told to see to it that the pace of testing does not come down on weekends and holidays and that all testing centres must work on all days of the week.
The top bureaucrat asked collectors to ensure use of a new testing app for meticulous contact tracing of every positive person and their subsequent testing also.
Collectors were asked to ensure that all symptomatic persons found negative in Rapid Antigen Tests were subjected to RT PCR tests also as per the guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
He stressed the importance of on-the-spot assessment and counselling of all Covid positive persons by doctors at the testing location itself. He also emphasised the need to hand over a kit of essential medicines to all persons found fit for home isolation.
Meanwhile, the state of Telangana saw as many as 1,498 fresh COVID-19 cases, the highest single day spike this year, pushing the gross to over 3.14 lakh, while the toll climbed to 1,729 with six more fatalities.
Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) accounted for the most number of cases with 313, followed by Medchal Malkajgiri 164 and Nizamabad 142, a government bulletin said on Tuesday, providing details as of 8 pm on April 5. The total number of cases stood at 3,14,735 while recoveries were at 3,03,013, with 245 patients being cured.
The state has 9,993 active cases and 62,350 samples were tested on Monday. Cumulatively, over 1.04 crore samples have been tested. The samples tested per million population was over 2.82 lakh, the bulletin said.
The case fatality rate in the state was 0.54%, while it was 1.3% at the national level. The recovery rate in Telangana was 96.27 per cent, while it was 92.5 % in the country. According to another release, over 12.80 lakh people in the state have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, while over 2.66 lakh got their second shots, as of April 5