Telangana health officials are expecting that intensity of the Covid-19 infections will taper off by the end of September in the state as the number of fresh cases dropped in the state capital, considered as a major hotspot.

According to director of public health Dr G Srinivas Rao though there is a surge in the number of Covid-19 cases in rural Telangana the rate of infection is coming down in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).

“We brought it under control in the GHMC area. By September the entire state would be under control,” he said adding that they had anticipated this trend.

The state has reported 2,579 fresh infections and nine more deaths pushing up the cumulative to 1.08 lakh and the toll to 770. The intensity of the infection has dropped in GHMC with only 295 new cases, though most of the 33 districts reported cases in double digit.

“We have been conducting over 40,000 tests for the past four days. Till date we have conducted 10, 21,054 tests and over five lakh tests in the month of August alone,” said Dr Rao and went on to add that the state was on the right track when it came to testing right from the beginning.

Telangana has finally ramped up testing by conducting 52,933 samples yesterday, the highest on a single day. Increased testing would mean diagnosing more number of asymptomatic patients.

The director of medical education Ramesh Reddy said out of around one lakh healthcare professionals in Telangana nearly 2,000 got infected with the virus and 14 succumbed to it, said Dr Reddy.

Health professionals across the state today observed two minute-long silence and wore black badges to remember colleagues who died of Covid-19
while demanding ex-gratia for the next kin. The director of public health also said about 50 per cent of the patients occupying beds in private hospitals are from other states like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Of the 2,000 complaints received by the state
government against private hospitals around 200 have been found to be over surplus billing and notices have been sent out to them.

Jagan’s warning to private hospitals

Andhra Pradesh chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy warned that severe action against private hospitals which are charging more than what the state government has stipulated.

He emphasised on early detection of the virus particularly for those belonging to high risk category.Today 9,927 fresh cases were detected in Andhra Pradesh pushing up the cumulative to 3,71,639.

The state government today handed over Rs 50 lakh each to the next of kin of the Covid -19 patients who died in the fire at a makeshift care centre at a Swarna Palace hotel although it hit a road block at the High Court after the latter stayed the arrest of Dr Ramesh Pothineni, managing director of Ramesh
Hospital which was running the centre.