Two babies were among the six people who died of the coronavirus in Telangana on Saturday, taking the state's death toll to 77. All the six had comorbidities. A three-month-old male child who died had cardiac disease while a 24-day-old baby boy was born prematurely.
The others who succumbed to the virus were aged between 47 and 62. A surge in coronavirus cases continued as the state reported 74 new cases on Saturday, taking the state's tally to 2,499.
According to the Public Health and Family Welfare Department, 60 new cases were local while five deportees and nine migrants also tested positive.
Greater Hyderabad continued to be the hotspot, accounting for 41 cases. For the first time in nearly three weeks, new cases were reported from several districts. Twelve districts reported positive cases on Saturday. For the last several days, the infections were confined to Hyderabad and a couple of surrounding districts.
For the first time since the outbreak of coronavirus, Wanaparthy district reported a case. Thus, the number of districts with zero cases till date went down to two.
The number of districts with no cases for the last 14 days also came down to 14 from 26 a few days ago. With five more deportees from Saudi Arabia testing positive, the number of deportees found infected rose to 212. Nine migrants also tested positive, pushing the total cases in this category to 189.
Officials said with 1,412 people getting discharged so far after the treatment, the number of patients in the hospitals stands at 1,010.
Meanwhile, official sources said that one media reporter and three camerapersons have tested positive for the coronavirus in Hyderabad after several mediapersons were tested on Friday. An official announcement is yet to be made in this regard.
Talking to reporters on Saturday, Director of Public Health Srinivas Rao appealed to people to follow precautions like wearing a mask, maintaining social distancing and ensuring personal cleanliness (hand wash) in the wake of increased movement of people due to relaxations given in lockdown norms.
With IANS and PTI inputs