Hyderabad : A whiff of relief but TS still on the edge

Hyderabad : Although there is a bit of relief amongst Telangana government with dozens of samples of Covid-19 suspected cases testing negative to the deadly virus in the last two-three days, the danger is far from over.

The virus infected 24-year old techie and 88 primary contacts who came in touch with him are not completely out of the health risk. They are under close watch for a total period of 28 days which is the incubation period for the symptoms to surface.

The virus infected patient, who is undergoing treatment in Gandhi Hospital, is showing signs of improvement in health with each passing day, according to doctors.

However, he will have to undergo two-sample tests (within 24 hours gap) one after the other and both had to test negative to consider him to have completely recovered.

These tests, however, would have to be taken after two weeks since he tested positive, which means he will be under the scanner again around March 15/16.

Meanwhile, more than half of the primary contacts including parents, doctors and medical staff and co-passengers in the bus have tested negative in the sample tests done over the last few days.

They all have been discharged and are under home quarantine along with asymptomatic primary contacts who, however, were not made to undergo the sample testing.

According to Dr Prabhakar, the Covid-19 nodal officer at Gandhi Hospital, health condition of all the 88 primary contacts to the techie are being monitored on a daily basis.

If anyone is found to have related symptoms including fever, cough, cold, sore throat or breathing problems, they would be asked to come to Gandhi Hospital to take sample testing.

Even those who earlier tested negative are not exempt and they too have to undergo another test again if symptoms do not decrease over the next 28-day period.

According to sources, of the 88 primary contacts, 15 of them including children, elders, diabetic and TB patients are the most the authorities are worried about as their immunity levels would be low compared to healthy individuals whose body might show some resistance to the virus infection.