90 Covid cases every hour in Sept.

A slowdown in fresh Covid-19 cases in August that promised some relief from the disease in Telangana state, appears to have been wishful thinking with the rate of new cases picking up again this month.

On August 25, senior health department officials, addressing a press conference, had offered the promise of a return to ‘normal lives’ by the end of September.

The first 19 days of September have seen at least 90 people contracting Covid-19 every hour in the state, up from 53 in August. The August number was lower than what occurred in July which saw a rate of 63 people testing positive every hour.

While July saw a total of 47,429 new Covid-19 cases, August witnessed 39,080. This month, till Saturday, the number of new cases was 40,717, indicating that September may yet be one of the worst months as the state struggles to cope with the pandemic. With an average daily case rate of 2,143 in the first 19 days of September, the state could be looking at adding anywhere between 23,000 and 24,000 cases in remaining 11 days of the month if the trend continues, taking the month’s caseload to around 64,000.

Within the 650 sq. km of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation limits, Hyderabad city which occupies 217 sq.km has seen 6,159 cases at an average of 325 per day till September 19, which works out to around 14 new cases being found every hour.

In August, the GHMC area saw 12,096 cases averaging 390 new cases a day at the rate of 16 new cases every hour. If the current average of daily cases in the GHMC continues till the end of this month, the total could be around 9,700 for September.

The total 47,429 cases in July were found after the state conducted 3,65,796 tests during the month. In August, 39,080 cases were found against the 9,46,051 tests conducted while till September 19, the number of tests conducted was 10,04,953 with 40,717 new Covid- 19 cases being found.

WHILE JULY saw a total of 47,429 new Covid

19 cases, August witnessed 39,080. This month, till Saturday, the number of new cases was

40,717, indicating that September may yet be one of the worst months as the state struggles to cope with the pandemic.