HYDERABAD: The Telangana government has instructed the health department not to test the asymptomatic secondary contacts of COVID-19 patients, but they should be quarantined for 28 days instead of 14 days.
"They asymptomatic secondary contacts shall not be tested. However, they shall be identified, stamped and placed in strict home quarantine for a period of 28 days and monitored daily by the local area multi-disciplinary surveillance teams," chief secretary Somesh Kumar said in a release on Wednesday.
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Only the primary contacts of the positive cases shall be brought to the government identified quarantine centres and their samples be taken for testing, it added.
According to an official release yesterday, Telangana has 711 active cases of coronavirus.
As many as 194 patients have been discharged while 23 died due to the killer virus.
The state police have earlier booked cases under the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 against some people who violated quarantine procedures after being stamped for isolation.
The act empowers senior officials to take measures necessary to contain the coronavirus outbreak.