City emerges epicentre of Covid surge in state

Covid-19 cases doubled overnight in Telangana and, if the surge is any indication, the state appears to be falling headlong into the third wave. State reported

1,052 new cases, the state health department said, a very steep climb from

482 on Monday. In Hyderabad, the new daily cases rocketed from 294 on Monday to

659 on Tuesday. Whether this surge is being driven by Omicron has not been made clear by the Director of Public Health Dr G. Srinivasa Rao who had earlier said the health department would not make any distinction in Covid cases caused by different variants of the Coronavirus, because the treatment remained the same.

However, the Omicron spreads four to six times faster than the previous variants, making it a force to contend with, despite assurances by health officials that it causes only mild symptoms in a few, and does not exhibit any symptoms in 90 per cent of the people it infects.

The cause for concern on this front, according to health officials, is that asymptomatic persons can spread it to the 10 per cent of the very vulnerable among the population, especially the elderly, and those who suffer from serious health conditions, adversely affecting them and possibly resulting in requiring serious hospital care. Incidentally, on Tuesday, one in 35 people whose results were available tested positive for Covid19. On January 1, the figure stood at 83 people.

More than doubling of cases were reported from Medchal-Malkajgiri where cases rose from 48 on Monday to 116, and in Ranga Reddy where Tuesday’s cases were

109, up from 55 on Monday. All it took for doubling of cases was a modest increase in the number of tests. On Monday, the department reported 38,362 tests, and on Tuesday 42,991, an increase of just 3,629 tests. When taken into consideration the actual tests for which results were available on both days, the increase effectively falls to 2,386, and the increase by 570 cases since Monday shows that Covid is firmly back in Hyderabad and the rest of Telangana.