Raising major concerns, two cases of suspected reinfection of coronavirus have been reported in Hyderabad among frontline medical professionals. Health officials are probing if they were infected with two different strains of the virus.
Speaking to the media, Health Minister Eatala Rajender on Tuesday said, “Out of the one lakh cases that were positive in Telangana, only two cases of reinfection have been reported. There is no guarantee that there won't be reinfection. In case if antibodies are not sufficient for the fight against coronavirus, then there are chances of the virus infecting again.”
Meanwhile, Dr. G Srinivasa Rao, Director of Public Health, Telangana told the Times of India that the reinfected patients underwent RT- PCR tests both times and the results came positive for the coronavirus. He added that the patients were asymptomatic initially and that they might have got re-infected through a different strain this time. In the two cases, the reinfection started within the span of one and half months. However, the state will look into whether a false positive was recorded in these cases.
According to media reports, the reinfection cases were from medical professionals belonging to private hospitals, who were working in ICU and isolation wards and were continuously exposed to the virus. So far, there are about 2000 cases of coronavirus cases among medical professionals in the state.
COVID-19 cases are on the rise in Telangana, with the total number of daily cases breaching the 2500 mark for the first time on Monday. There were 2,579 new cases of COVID-19. A total of 52,933 tests have been conducted so far, and 770 deaths reported.
The Health minister further said that the mortality rate in Telangana among the COVID-19 cases is 0.7 to 0.8% and rest 99% of the cases are recovering. Among the 1% deaths, there are cases of heart, kidney, obesity, and others with comorbidities, he added.
The minister also appealed to patients infected with COVID-19 not to be afraid and others also not to put restrictions when it comes to rental houses and entry of COVID-19 bodies into villages.