Telangana reports 43 new +ve cases
Telangana state registered yet another steep climb in the number of coronavirus-positive cases with the government announcing late on Saturday evening that 43 more persons were identified as being affected with Covid19.
This takes the total number of Covid-19 cases, including 11 deaths and 33 recovered and discharged patients, to 272.
“Every one of these new cases,” health minister Etala Rajendar said in a statement, were either those who went to attend the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at the Markaz masjid in the Nizamuddin area of Delhi between March 13 and March 15, or those who were contact with the returnees who brought the disease back with them.
Among those who tested Covid-19 positive was a resident of an area very close to the King Koti Palace in Narayanguda police station limits, which sent ripples of fear.
According to officials, the man lived with a family of 46 persons in one house. With fears of a coronavirus-cluster forming up, medical teams from Gandhi Hospital, supervised by the hospital doctors, rushed to the man’s residence and collected samples from all the inmates for testing.
As on Saturday night, the entire family was placed under home quarantine while the man who tested positive was taken to hospital for treatment.
The man, was among six who attended the Markaz event from that area. The test results on five others is pending, officials said.
Incidentally, as Deccan Chronicle reported earlier that the number of people who attended Tablighi event from Telangana state would go up, the health minister said that as on Saturday the government had identified 1,090 such individuals. The original figure released a few days ago by the government was 1,030.
Mr Rajendar also said that the government will take strict action on anyone who attacks, intimidates, or prevents doctors and medical personnel from discharging their duty in the state.
He said the state had adequate critical equipment such as personal protection equipment kits. The government has purchased five lakh N-95 masks for use by doctors and staff directly treating Covid-19 patients, four lakh testing kits, 500 ventilators, 20 lakh surgical masks, and 25 lakh hand gloves.