The State reported 18 new coronavirus (COVID-19) positive cases on Sunday taking the total number of affected persons to 858.
Three more deaths were reported since Saturday, taking the total number of casualties since the outbreak of the virus to 21. In all, 186 persons had been discharged from different hospitals after being treated/cured.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao said the containment measures initiated by the government has brought down the doubling rate significantly. Against the national average doubling rate of less than eight days, doubling rate in the State was more than 10 days and the death rate too was significantly lower at 2.44 per cent compared to the national average of 3.22 per cent with 507 deaths reported across the country.
The State has far surpassed the national average in the recovery rate which stood at 22 per cent as compared to 14 per cent across the country. Tests per million population in the State stood at 375 as compared to the national average of 254. Four districts – Warangal Rural, Yadadri Bhuvanagiri, Wanaparthy and Siddipet reported zero COVID-19 cases.
The State set up 127 quarantines including five in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits and total of 1,818 persons including 183 in the GHMC limits were quarantined so far. As many as 292 containment zones including 151 in the GHMC limits and 87 in other urban local bodies had been declared and 138 of the zones would complete the 14-day containment period by Monday, 36 by April 25, 61 by April 30 and 57 by May 57.
Nine laboratories with testing capacity of 1,560 were working full time and total number of 14,962 samples had been collected and sent for analysis to them. Of these, 858 had been tested positive and 14,104 negative while results of 768 samples were under process. Hospitals in the State were equipped with 11,000 COVID-19 isolation beds in addition to 836 ICU beds and 564 beds with ventilators, taking the total to 12,400.
Steps had also been taken to position key items like personal protection kits and N95 masks. There were 3.04 lakh PPE kits and 3.53 lakh N95 masks were available as of now in addition to 36.5 lakh three-ply masks, 61,119 sample collection kits and 21,366 testing kits. Adequate quantity of hydroxychloroquine (12.35 lakh) had been kept in position, with 50,807 staff taking HCQs till date.
In addition, other important services like immunisation (94.4%) were continuing. Steps were taken to conduct deliveries with total number of 29,991 deliveries conducted during the lockdown period. Services like dialysis (5,050 patients), chemotherapy (1,507 patients) were continuing uninterrupted and a total of 580 Thalassemia patients had been serviced so far.
