Telangana becomes ninth state to cross 1000 coronavirus cases

Telangana has reported 11 COVID-19 cases on Sunday, making it the ninth state in the country to have crossed the 1000 mark.

On Saturday, neighboring Andhra Pradesh became the eighth state to have crossed 1000 cases. AP now has 1097 cases, with 231 recoveries and 31 deaths.

Telangana, which reported its first COVID-19 patient on March 2 – a Bangalore working techie who returned from a Dubai assignment - has a total 1001 recorded cases, with 316 recoveries and 25 deaths. 660 patients are under treatment at present.

While most of Telangana’s cases are those connected to the Tablighi Jamaat’s Nizamuddin Markaz, more than half i.e. 540 are those reported from the capital area – the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation jurisdiction.

However, Suryapet district in South-East Telangana bordering Andhra Pradesh and Gadwal in South Telangana adjacent to Karnataka turned hot spots of serious concern in the last week, with alarming number of cases reported from the small districts with relatively lesser urbanisation.

On Tuesday alone Suryapet, thorough which the Hyderabad-Vijayawada highway runs, has reported 26 cases. The district’s total cases are now at 83, making it second after Hyderabad with most COVID-19 cases.

The sudden spike in numbers from rural districts had prompted Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to send a high-level committee comprising the state chief secretary, DGP and health secretary to Suryapet and Gadwal to assess the ground situation. Strict implementation of the lockdown, and contact tracing of the patients etc. have been intensified, following the committee’s report to the CM.

Several areas of Suryapet town are declared as containment zones and essential commodities including Ramzan supplies are being delivered to the households.

Another concerning aspect of Telangana’s COVID-19 cases is several people from within a family getting infected with the virus.

According to health minister Etela Rajender, the 83 positive cases in Suryapet district are from 25 families and Gadwal’s 45 cases are from 30 families. Vikarabad district’s 37 cases are from 14 families.

265 COVID-19 positive people are from 44 families in GHMC, which in total has reported 540 COVID-19 cases.

“The number of families affected is less but on average each of these families reported 6-7 cases, with infections in some of families being as high as 21 cases,” Etela said.

The shocking concentration of cases, the officials stated, has in a way helped contain the areas immediately and thus, lessen the spread of the virus.