While Kerala did not report any COVID-19 case, Karnataka registered two deaths on Monday. Andhra Pradesh detected 67 fresh cases from six districts and Telangana reported only three cases on Monday.
Kerala put 61 people on the recovery list on Monday and did not report any case for the second consecutive day.
A total of 462 people out of the 499 cases reported so far in the State have fully recovered from the disease. At present, only 34 patients are undergoing treatment in various hospitals in the State.
As on Monday, Thiruvananthapuram, Malappuram and Kozhikode have discharged all patients and join Ernakulam, Thrissur and Alappuzha which do not have any COVID-19 patients at present. The patients under treatment in hospitals are as follows: Kollam (3), Pathanamthitta (1), Kottayam (6), Idukki (1), Palakkad (1), Wayanad (1), Kannur (18) and Kasaragod (3).
The number of persons under surveillance is 21,724, out of whom, only 372 are isolated in various hospitals while the rest are on home quarantine.
The State has tested 33,010 samples so far of which 32,315 have returned a negative result. Of the 2,431 samples tested as part of a sentinel survey among select groups in the population, 1,846 samples have tested negative.
No new hotspots have been added to the current list of 84 in the State.
Karnataka toll 27
Two deaths, one in Kalaburgi and another in Davangere, were reported in Karnataka on Monday, taking the toll to 27. Both are known cases with comorbidities.
A 56-year-old male resident of Kalaburgi, who was admitted on April 29 with complaints of cough and fever, succumbed to the infection on Sunday. A 48-year-old female resident of Davanagere, who was admitted on May 1, died on Monday. She had hypertension, diabetes and hypothyroidism.
Meanwhile, 37 new cases, including Sunday’s 21 reported in Davangere, have been detected on Monday, taking the total positive cases to 651.
Addressing press persons, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Suresh Kumar said 22 of the 37 new cases are from Davangere. “Nineteen of the 22 Davangere cases have contracted the infection from a nurse of a primary health centre there, who has tested positive. The nurse had attended a wedding in Bagalkot. Except one patient, who is a Influenza like Illness (ILI) case, the others are contacts of another positive patient,” he said. The other cases include seven from Bidar, two each from Mandya and Kalaburgi and one each from Chikkaballaoura, Haveri, Vijayapura and Bengaluru Urban. In Bidar, one positive patient has spread the infection to seven others. “The lone positive case reported from Bengaluru Urban is of a 40-year-old police constable,” the Minister added.
On Monday, the number of discharged cases (321) exceeded active positive cases (296) in the State. The average discharges per day as of last week are 16 and average positive cases per day are 14. This trend is continuing, said Mr. Suresh Kumar.
10,292 samples tested
Andhra Pradesh has tested 10,292 samples, the highest in a day, and detected 67 fresh COVID-19 cases from six districts in 24 hours. The tally of positive cases has gone up to 1,650 and 36 patients have recovered, leaving a total of 1,093 patients active. No new deaths were reported, and so far the death toll is 33.
Kurnool is continuing to report more cases by the day and 25 fresh cases have been reported in 24 hours. Guntur reported 19 fresh cases and Krishna reported 12 fresh cases. Visakhapatnam with one of the least positivity rates has reported six fresh cases and Kadapa and Chittoor reported four and one fresh cases. Also, in Kurnool, nine patients have recovered and were discharged. In Chittoor and Prakasam eight patients were discharged while in Nellore six patients were discharged, in West Godavari three persons were discharged and in East Godavari two patients were discharged.
Till date the State has tested 1,25,229 samples with a positivity rate of 1.31%. So far, Kurnool reported 491 cases, Guntur reported 338 cases, Krishna reported 278 cases, Nellore reported 91 cases, Kadapa reported 87 cases, Chittoor reported 82 cases, Anantapur reported 78 cases, Prakasam reported 61 cases, West Godavari reported 59 cases, East Godavari reported 45 cases, Visakhapatnam reported 35 cases and Srikakulam reported five cases.
Meanwhile, officials of the Health Department and others concerned, in a review meeting, told Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy that testing of 32,792 persons identified in fever survey with symptoms like fever, cough and cold would be completed by Tuesday.
Mr. Reddy was told that the testing capacity of the State had now gone up to over 10,000 per day and 11 (RT-PCR) laboratories and 45 TruNet test centres are functioning at present.
So far the 11 laboratories are using 22 RT-PCR machines and soon the number will be taken up to four machines per district, they said.
The State’s tests per million ratio has gone up to 2,345 overtaking Delhi which has conducted 2,224 tests per million.
Drops to single digit
The number of COVID-19 cases in Telangana dropped to single digit again as only three samples tested positive for the virus on Monday.
All the three cases are from the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits. Of the patients admitted to isolation wards, 40 more were discharged.
A total of 1,085 cases were reported till May 4. Of them, 471 are active cases, 585 were discharged and 29 people suffering from the disease have died.
Director of public Health G. Srinivasa Rao detailed week-wise peak in COVID-19 cases in Telangana. From March 2, when the first case was confirmed in Telangana, there were two peaks till May 4.
The first peak of 303 cases was recorded from March 30 to April 6. It dropped to 153 from April 7 to 13, but peaked again to 366 from April 14 to 20. Thereafter, it continued to drop. Only 76 cases were reported from April 27 to May 4.
Though officials stated that the dip in the number of new cases denotes that the lockdown was effective in containing the pandemic, questions remain about the criteria to test samples. Doctors attending COVID-19 patients, Health department officials said there would be less cases if less samples are tested.
Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar had issued directions on April 21 not to test asymptomatic secondary contacts, but to quarantine them at home for 28 days and monitor their condition. He had insisted that only primary contacts of positive cases should be brought to the government identified quarantine centres and their samples should be collected for testing. State Health Minister Eatala Rajender claimed that their criteria adheres to the Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) guidelines.
The doctors and health officials who argued against excluding asymptomatic secondary contacts stressed there is every possibility that the asymptomatic contacts might be carriers of the virus. Delay in testing them could lead to further spread of the virus.
Besides, unlike other States, the Health department in Telangana does not regularly share number of samples tested. It is seldom mentioned in daily health bulletin. Earlier, the number of samples tested was displayed on the Telangana’s Department of Health and Family Welfare website. However, the crucial information is excluded from May 1 afternoon. Doctors on multiple occasions pointed out detailed medical bulletins issued by other States.
(With inputs from Bengaluru, Vijayawada and Hyderabad Bureaus)
