ETALA PUTS UP BRAVE FRONT AS VIRUS SPREADS
Even as the state government awaits Covid-19 test results from the sample of two more patients, both women, who are currently admitted to the Gandhi General Hospital (GGH), an employee of DSM, an IT company, and a housekeeping department staffer from Apollo Hospitals in Secunderabad, health minister Etala Rajendar on Wednesday braved to say that he was hoping that the results would come in the negative.
Samples collected from the two patients were sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune for confirmation tests. “We expect the results on Thursday,” Rajendar said.
Telangana has so far one positive case of Covid-19, a 24-year-old male techie who is said to have contracted the disease while in Dubai recently on a work related trip.
“So far, we have no local transmission of the virus. The one case is of a person getting infected abroad. The IT employee returned recently from a trip to Italy,” he said, adding that the other case was that of a housekeeping staffer of Apollo Hospitals. This hospital employee was among others from Apollo, who were in close contact with the Dubai-returnee patient, while he was admitted there,” health minister Etala Rajendar said.
The minister reiterated that there was absolutely no need for any panic or fear over Coronavirus as the “government had put in place every possible measure for treatment and containment of the disease.”
He appealed to the public to cover their mouth while coughing or sneezing and practice good hand hygiene. “If anyone feels they have any symptoms of the disease or fear that they may have caught it, we urge them to call the 104 helpline for advice and guidance,” Mr Rajender said.
Asked if the decision by DSM to send all its employees home was correct and its announcement of a positive Covid19 result of its employee before the second test was completed, the health minister said that the “company may have acted in this manner as a matter of abundant precaution.”
He made it clear that only the central government was authorised to announce positive case test results, adding that unless it was confirmed that the IT employee had the disease, it was not correct to make such an announcement.
Mr Rajender had earlier claimed that given the summer had set in, it was unlikely there would any case of the virus in the state.
THE MINISTER appealed to the public to cover their mouth while coughing or sneezing.