There was a further drop in the number of new COVID-19 cases in Telangana as only two samples tested positive on Monday. Sixteen patients were discharged from the hospital. Till date, 1,003 cases have been recorded in the State. Of those, 646 are active cases, 332 discharged and 25 people have died.
The two new cases were reported from GHMC area, which includes some parts of Rangareddy and Medchal districts.
Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar had issued directions last week that asymptomatic secondary contacts should not be tested. “However, they shall be identified, stamped and placed under strict home quarantine for 28 days and monitored daily by the local area Multi Disciplinary Surveillance teams,” Mr Kumar said.
He also instructed that only primary contacts of positive cases shall be brought to the government-identified quarantine centres and their samples be collected for testing.
Judicious use of test kits
Asked whether more tests will be conducted which could lead to detection of further cases, senior officials from the State Health department said they were taking all measures to identify possible positive cases. They said that testing kits were used judiciously as the resources are imported.
“The kits are not manufactured here. So we have to be careful. We do not know what kind of situation will arise in future. However, we are following the guidelines framed by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). Tests are also being conducted on those with Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI), Influenza-like illness,” the officials said.
