Telangana may see another surge in Covid-19 cases: Health officials

Hyderabad, May 30 (IANS) Coronavirus cases increased in Telangana as a result of movement of people following the relaxations in the lockdown norms and there may be another surge in the coming days, but the state government is fully geared up to tackle it, health officials said on Saturday.

While admitting that there is a spike in the number of cases, they claimed that there is no community transmission.

Since the beginning of lockdown 4.0 on May 18, Telangana reported 1,005 new cases. The state recorded 2,499 cases till Saturday.

The Director of Medical Education, Ramesh Reddy, told reporters that as a first step to tackle the pandemic, lockdown was enforced and it controlled the spread to a large extent compared to other states.

“When we move to the next step (relaxations), it is a natural phenomenon in this disease that the number of cases goes up. As there is movement of people, it (the virus) automatically spreads to some areas,” he said.

He urged the people to take all precautions like wearing a mask, maintaining social distancing and personal hygiene to help check the spread of the dreaded virus.

The official said the number of cases may go up further, saying “definitely there will be a surge in the coming days”. However, he added that there is no need for panic and assured that things are under control.

Reddy said the government has already made preparations to tackle any surge in Covid-19 cases in terms of equipment, facilities and hospitals.

He claimed that the government has already created advanced facilities to build the capacity to tackle the increased number of admissions to hospitals.

Stating that only 20 per cent of the Covid-19 cases needed hospitalisation, he said that out of them, only 5 per cent, and that too with comorbidities, will require critical care. He pointed out that the majority of the 71 people who died due to Covid-19 were suffering with comorbidities.

–IANS

ms/arm