Telangana's Covid positivity rate spikes to 4% from 1%

Hyderabad: Although the number of Covid-19 cases are changing day by day, the State's Covid positivity rate seems to be going up. The positivity rate in the State, which stood at 1.09 percent on January 1, has risen to 4.27 percent on January 31. The number of cases are also increasing in Ranga Reddy, Medchal-Malkajgiri districts, including Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits.

It has become a matter of concern that more than 50 percent of cases across the State are in these three districts alone. Further, the quick analysis of Covid situation in the State shows that more than 3,000 to 4,000 Covid cases are being registered daily. On the other hand, the government is distributing Covid home isolation medicine kits to lakhs of people with symptoms in the fever survey.

So far, the Covid positivity rate is increasing exponentially. Most importantly there seems to be a significant change in the positivity rate during the current third wave of Covid-19. The positivity rate, which did not exceed 2.5 percent till January 10, increased to 3.05 per cent on January 17. In addition, the government has drastically increased the number of Covid-19 tests across the State.

In the first two weeks of January the number of Covid tests that exceeded 60,000 was increased to over one lakh after Sankranti festival. More than 4,000 cases were registered for three consecutive days from January 20 to 23.

On January 25, the highest number of cases were recorded. The health officials said 4,559 people were infected in a single day. The positivity rate has also been over four per cent for the past two days. The State recorded 2,484 cases on Sunday, but the highest was 4.27 percent. This shows that despite the low number of cases, the number of people undergoing Covid tests is higher than in the past.

The concern is that the highest percentage of cases reported across the State is in GHMC and its surrounding districts. According to the medical health department, more than 55 percent of the positive cases in Telangana are reported under GHMC, Ranga Reddy and Medchal.

Majority of the infections were registered in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits (1,045), followed by Rangareddy (130) and Medchal-Malkajgiri (138), Hanumakonda (88), Siddipet (70) and Sanga Reddy (58).