Hyderabad: The decline in COVID-19 cases in Telangana continued on Tuesday with only six fresh cases being reported as Health Minister E Rajender hoped the trend would continue and the pandemic would soon end in the state without more deaths.
With these six cases, the total number of positive cases in the state has risen to 1,009.
No fresh death occurred and the number of people who died due to the virus continued to remain at 25, Rajender said.
Forty two people were discharged today, taking the number of people discharged after recovery to 374, he said.
The number of active cases in the state stood at 610.
The Minister told reporters that the Centre and Indian Council of Medical Research had appreciated the state for the effective steps taken to contain the spread of COVID-19.
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Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, in a video conference, told him to thank Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar
Rao, he said.
Dismissing the criticism in some quarters that Telangana was not conducting enough tests compared to its neighbouring state (an apparent reference to Andhra Pradesh), he said the ICMR guidelines state that tests should be done on those who are symptomatic and not on those who do not show symptoms.
"Even swabs will be difficult to be taken for healthy people," he said.
The number of tests conducted by the state government was not low either,he said and referred to the nationwide figures.
Across the nation, over 7.16 lakh tests were conducted and there were 29,434 positive cases, which worked out to 4.1 per cent, the minister said.
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In Telangana, 19,063 tests were conducted and the number of positive cases was 1,009 (as on Tuesday), which was 5.3 per cent, he said.
"Telangana is effectively implementing the guidelines of ICMR and the Centre without indiscriminate testing," he said.
He also said most of those who tested positive are asymptomatic.
Stating that the new guidelines of the Centre suggested home quarantining of those who tested positive, he said there would be only a few people left in the state-run Gandhi hospital in the city, where positive patients are treated, if those guidelines are followed.
The Minister said many nations have chosen to treat only those who are in serious condition.
The state government wanted to discharge patients after they tested negative, he said. Hoping that the decline in number of cases wouldcontinue, he said: By May 8 we hope it may happen or may not, (those undergoing treatment) would recover fully and the pandemic would end without any deaths.
"We wish that public life continues normally and Telangana progresses again, he said.
Meanwhile, the Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT), which has been on a visit to the state to assess the COVID-19 situation, visited the headquarters of the Greater Hyderabad
Municipal Corporation to know the functioning of its control room and also a shelter where some migrant workers have been put up.
(PTI REPORT)
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