HYDERABAD: Telangana recorded 412 cases of COVID-19 on Monday, the report for which was released on Tuesday, indicating that tough days are ahead. At 3,151, the active cases in the State are high, with nearly 1,866 patients in hospitals.
For the first time in 2021, the Greater Hyderabad Zone saw more than 100 cases - 103 cases were detected on Monday. The last time the zone saw so many cases was on December 31, 2020. Another disconcerting trend is that districts too are reporting a surge in cases.
For instance, Medchal and Rangareddy have reported 32 and 27 cases respectively. Nizamabad, which shares border with Maharashtra, had 18 cases and there were 12 cases from Karimnagar.
Meanwhile, Health officials have urged people to increase precautions. Dr GS Rao, Director of Public Health, said though no proposal for a lockdown or night curfew is under consideration, the people, nonetheless, should take precautions such as wearing masks, maintaining social distance and avoiding travel.
"We now have a year of experience in dealing with COVID-19. For our attempts to be successful, people should cooperate with us. The State is also planning to increase the number of vaccination sites to ensure a large part of the population gets immunised against COVID-19," Dr Rao, said, pointing out that with rising cases, testing too would be increased.
Highly placed sources said that in Gandhi Hospital, which was once the nodal COVID-19 treatment hospital, a close watch is being kept on the admissions of critical COVID-19 cases and accordingly, reduce the number of non-COVID-19 elective cases and surgeries.
Even as the State has nearly 10,000 oxygen beds ready for COVID-19 operations across all government hospitals, the department is not leaving anything to chance. With the second wave building across the country and Gandhi Hospital, which treats COVID-19 cases that require multi-disciplinary treatment, may witness a rise in admissions of critical COVID-19 cases.
The State Health Department is also keen on treating COVID-19 cases in the districts they originate in and only accept critical cases in Gandhi Hospital. For this, nearly 21 new oxygen tanks, with a capacity of four-five days' worth of oxygen, have been readied. More than 3,000 large oxygen cylinders have also been circulated to smaller Area Hospitals and CHCs to manage the cases until they can be shifted.
"The State Health Department is fully equipped to treat patients. In the last one year, 10,000 beds have been fixed exclusively for COVID-19 with oxygen supply. We have also convened meetings with committees to find out if there are adequate medicines and PPE kit supply. Furthermore, we are also revamping CT scan machines in various government hospitals as it is a critical tool in COVID-19 detection. The procurement of the equipment will happen soon," said Dr Ramesh Reddy, Director of Medical Education. TIMS, the newly inaugurated COVID-19 hospital, will also get its CT scan machine. Apart from this, nearly five oxygen generators sanctioned by the Centre are also about to start functioning from next week.
TPCC working president Revanth Reddy tests positive for COVID-19
TPCC working president and Congress MP Revanth Reddy tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday. He took to his Twitter timeline and shared that he had isolated himself. He further went on to urge his contacts from the past few days to take necessary precautions and quarantine themselves.
Until last week, the Malkajgiri MP was attending Parliament sessions. Meanwhile, a Government Polytechnic College in Adilabad's Bellampalli was shut after 15 students and five teachers tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday.
The patients were sent home for isolation. Apart from this, four students of RGUKT (IIIT) in Basara had also tested positive on Tuesday.