The surge in COVID-19 cases has sparked speculation in Telangana that the state government is planning to re-impose a total lockdown. However, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government has clarified that there is no proposal to impose the lockdown again.
Though the government admitted that relaxations in lockdown and increased mobility of people has led to the surge in COVID-19 cases, it has ruled out re-imposing a total lockdown.
The speculation began after a Telugu news channel claimed that the lockdown will be re-imposed and attributed it to a statement by Animal Husbandry Minister T Srinivas Yadav in an interview
However, on Saturday, the minister said that he merely stated that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao would decide on further steps to be taken to contain the spread of COVID-19.
In the steepest single-day jump, Telangana reported 253 COVID-19 positive cases on Saturday. The surge has pushed the state's tally to 4,737. More than 600 cases were reported in the last three days. It was only on June 10 that the state had crossed the 4,000 mark.
Exactly a week ago, Telangana had recorded its highest daily jump with 206 cases.
The surge in the number of fatalities also continued with eight more patients succumbing to the dreaded virus during a 24-hour period, ending at 5 pm on Saturday. With this, the death toll mounted to 182.
Health officials said 179 of the new cases were reported from Greater Hyderabad, which remained the biggest hotspot in the state.
The virus spread continued across the state as cases were reported from 19 districts. Sangareddy district accounted for 24 cases, including 19 from a single family after relatives of a 55-year-old woman, who died three days ago, tested positive.
Medchal and Rangareddy, two districts adjoining Hyderabad, together reported 25 cases on Saturday.
According to the Director of Public Health and Family Welfare in Telangana, the number of patients recovered rose to 2,352. Currently, 2,203 people are undergoing treatment in different hospitals.
Read: