It’s just the beginning of deadly 2nd wave TS records 4,446 new cases
No one should let their guard down till the end of June as Covid is spreading rapidly, says health director
Even as Telangana recorded its highest ever daily tally of Covid-19 cases at 4,446 on Friday, this may just be the beginning of what is in store in the next few weeks.
“No one, absolutely no one, should let their guard down till the end of June as the virus is spreading extremely rapidly through the population. The government is doing all it can but unless people join in the efforts to curb the spread of Coronavirus, we will lose this battle,” Director of Health Services Dr G. Srinivasa Rao warned on Saturday.
He said if that happens, there may be nothing that can save the people. For the past few months, people have been careless and have been ignoring basic protection measures. The virus is airborne, something he said he warned about four days ago, and a new study published in the medical journal Lancet too points to the same mode of transmission of the virus.
“It is, however, good to see mask-wearing compliance increase over the past few days thanks to the enforcement drive by the police who have been fining every person not wearing a mask
`1,000. Safety behaviour should be voluntary and it is surprising to see that it has taken steep fines for people to follow the guidelines,” he said.
“We must learn lessons from the past. The 1918 Spanish Flu during its first wave killed about 50 lakh people.
Everyone thought it had gone away and when it returned in a second wave up to 7 crore people worldwide lost their lives. Covid-19 is a pandemic. It cannot be cured. It must be contained and it can be done only if people join the efforts,” the state’s top medical officer said. The infection rate in Telangana state is climbing and along with the cases, the number of people needing treatment in hospitals is rising.
While 80 per cent of those infected are asymptomatic, around
12 per cent of patients are requiring hospitalisation and this is leading to shortage of beds.
The relentless rise of
Covid-19 cases is showing no signs of slowing down, even as it is becoming more deadly with each passing day.
The speed at which the Coronavirus is racing through the population can be gauged by the fact that Friday, April 16, saw three people catching
Covid-19 every minute. While on Thursday one out of every 32 people tested was found to be suffering from Covid-19, on Friday, one out of every 28 people tested was declared Covid-19 positive.
In what is expected to become the new ‘normal’ — a new daily high in cases — the state saw
4,446 new Coronavirus infections on Friday, marking a steep rise of
600 from 3,840 fresh cases on Thursday.
Deaths from Covid-19 too are rising, with the health department reporting that 12 people succumbed to the virus on Friday, the highest single day death toll from the disease this year.
While the daily caseload in Hyderabad and the GHMC area neared
the 600 mark, with 598 new cases reported on Friday, MedchalMalkajgiri district proved to be not far behind with 435 new cases. Two other districts crossed the 300-mark for the day with Ranga Reddy reporting 326, and Nizamabad reporting 314 fresh cases.
There were more than 33,514 Covid-19 patients in Telangana as on Friday evening, of whom 22,118 were in home or institutional isolation.
While the total cases stood at 4,446, the deaths from Covid-19 in Telangana rose to 1,809 by Thursday evening.