Covid cases on downslide in Telangana

Hyderabad: Telangana is showing a slow decline in fresh cases for the last four days. The state which used to be in top six in the country in most number of cases has moved a few places below the states like Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, etc, where more number of fresh cases is being reported every day.

The Telangana government feels that if this trend continues till May 7, the state would be in a happier position. It also claims that it has created best of the health infrastructure as compared to many other states. But experts feel that the authorities should continue to be vigilant as people will have to live with this virus for fairly a long period. Measures like social distancing, using of masks would have to be continued even after the lockdown was lifted.

On the other hand, the Opposition refuses to agree with the contention of the government that Telangana was in much better situation as compared to other states. They allege that the state government was confining sample tests only to primary symptomatic contacts. The number of tests done per million in the state is much less as compared to other states and hence the number of cases reported is also less, they allege. There are instances when secondary and third contacts tested positive in other states. Even asymptomatic people are testing positive, they say.

Besides neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, etc, are above Telangana in terms of tests conducted for million.

While Maharashtra conducted over one lakh sample tests out of which over 7,600 tested positive, Rajasthan conducted 73,900 tests out of which 2,083 tested positive, Tamil Nadu conducted 71,211 tests out of which 1,821 tested positive, Uttar Pradesh 56,000 tests out of which 1,843 tested positive.

Even the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh conducted over 74,000 tests, out of which nearly 1,180 came out positive, Telangana did over 19,000 tests out of which 1000-odd tested positive. If we talk in terms of number of tests being done per one million population, TS is doing only 468 tests, the Opposition alleges.