After a shutdown of more than 100 days, all ASI-protected monuments will reopen for the public from Monday (July 6). The ASI’s Hyderabad circle takes care of historical monuments like the Charminar, the Warangal Fort, the Thousand Pillared Temple and Ramappa Temple in Warangal, the Alampur Temple in Gadwal district, and a couple of prehistoric excavation sites. Among these, the Golconda Fort witnesses the maximum tourist footfall.

The officials of ASI’s Hyderabad held several discussions Friday following instructions from the head office. One of their major concerns is whether the Golconda Fort falls under a containment zone demarcated by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. However, after the GHMC gave a go-ahead, the ASI has decided to open the monument on July 6, Monday, but with certain curbs in place.

Even as the Golconda fort is closed for visitors, several people can be seen every day taking photographs from outside its main entrance. (Express Photo by Rahul Pisharody)

As economic activities get a fresh lease of life with the phase 2 of ‘Unlock’ kicking in, small and medium businessmen in Hyderabad are adopting to the post Covid-19 scenario by sensing the market demand.

With masks, gloves, sanitisers and face shields being sold in almost every second shop, a businessman in Hyderabad is making his own PPE kits. His only rider: these reusable suits are not for clinical purposes.

Jumpsuits with a hoodie, a clinical face mask and a separate cover for shoes — all stitched in pure cotton and hence reusable — are the products Anand Kataria has started selling from his wholesale store in the city. The suits are available in two different shades of blue and also white.

A group of techies in association with the Cyberabad Police launched a free ambulance service for transporting the dead, especially Covid-19 victims. The ‘Last Ride Service’ will be available for all communities irrespective of caste, creed and religion, said the group members of ‘Feed The Needy’ team.

As the service is being started as a pilot project, the services are currently limited to Cyberabad police jurisdiction, and between 8 am and 6 pm. “To Avail this Service Please Kindly Ring or What’s app on 8499843545. Based on need and responses we will expand it further,” they said.

The service was flagged off Saturday by police commissioner VC Sajjanar. The Commissioner stressed that the Covid-19 pandemic has put across numerous challenges and one of them was the cremation of a deceased Covid-19 patient.

The Telangana government should waive electricity bills for BPL families and SMEs for the entire lockdown period, the state Congress chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy said on Sunday. In a letter to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, he also demanded appropriate reduction in bill amount for other consumers. "We request you to kindly announce 100 per cent waiver of electricity bills for the lockdown period for the Below Poverty Line (BPL) families," Reddy, who is Nalgonda MP wrote.

While the power bills of all white ration card holders should be waived completely, the bill amount for others should be reduced appropriately by rectifying all the mistakes in the billing method, he further said. "Similarly, the power bills, including fixed, minimum and regular charges, of all Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) should also be waived completely for the lockdown period as they could not carry out any commercial activity," Uttam Kumar Reddy said in the letter.

Andhra Pradesh recorded a new single day high of 998 fresh COVID-19 cases on Sunday taking the overall tally to 18,697 even as the state crossed the one million mark in the number of samples tested. The state also saw 14 fresh coronavirus deaths, the highest in a day so far, taking the toll to 232, with a mortality rate of 1.24 per cent. The latest government bulletin said 391 patients were discharged in the last 24 hours, making it an overall 8,422 recoveries till date.

The surge in Karnataka and Telangana, and also in Andhra Pradesh, along with consistent high numbers from Tamil Nadu has ensured that the contribution of the five southern states in the national caseload has gone beyond 25 per cent for the first time. This number has been steadily increasing since the start of June, when it was about 17.5 per cent.

The rise has been more pronounced in the last three weeks as Telangana finally increased the number of samples it was testing. The surge in Karnataka and Telangana happened almost simultaneously, and these two currently are the states with the highest growth rates. Telangana is growing (7-day compounded daily growth rate) at 7.51 per cent while Karnataka is growing at 8.82 per cent. The current growth rate for India as a whole is only 3.47 per cent. Read more here

A Telangana police constable who distributed sweets after the birth of a son also tested positive on Saturday—as did the 12 recipients of the sweets. “These are the super-spreaders due to which the number of positive cases has gone up in Hyderabad. In spite of so much publicity, some people just refuse to follow the rules. Birthday parties, family gatherings to celebrate a birth, or youths getting together to welcome a foreign returnee are proving to be hotspots of coronavirus spread. Asymptomatic persons attending huge gatherings like this are spreading the infection,” Director of Public Health G Srinivas Rao said.

Amid a spike in cases, the Telangana government Saturday accused private labs of not adhering to testing norms prescribed by ICMR, which, it said, was leading to false positives. “We are going to issue notices to 13 private labs which are not following the norms,” Director of Public Health Rao said. One of these private laboratories has reported an extremely high sample positivity rate: With 2,672 positive cases against 3,726 total samples tested, the positivity rate is 71.7 per cent—a gross variation and discrepancy in the notified positivity rate of Covid-19 till date.

“The issue needs to be evaluated by an expert committee and until then the data of the said lab has been kept under abeyance. If this lab and other labs are found to be violating ICMR rules then we will take strict action against them,” Rao said.

A 62-year-old Sudan national, who was scheduled to board a repatriation flight to that country, passed away at RGI Airport in Hyderabad on Sunday morning. Hieba Mohammad Taha was undergoing cancer treatment in the city for the last six months, police said. Confirming the same, Shamshabad DCP N Prakash Reddy told indianexpress.com that the Sudan national developed complications before she boarded the aircraft. She was accompanied by family members at the time of incident, at around 7.30 a.m.

Telangana Health Minister Etela Rajender said he was frustrated. “There is a drastic rise in coronavirus cases in Hyderabad because people are refusing to follow basic rules. Families are hosting birthday parties, organising engagement functions, or getting together at homes to celebrate a new birth. It takes just one among them who is infected to spread the virus to dozens of others and that is what is happening in Hyderabad,” he said.

An 83-year-old ex-serviceman in Hyderabad, who was left to fend for himself at an apartment by his children, was shifted to the Government Chest Hospital after he complained of bad cold, cough, fever, and body pain on Saturday morning.

Chennaiah Goud was shifted by the municipal corporation and city police on the directions of the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) after the neighbours refused to help suspecting him of the Covid-19 disease.

In his petition to the Commission on July 2, Gangula German Reddy, a former naib subedar in the Indian Army himself, who resides in the same apartment complex as Goud, said the apartment residents, fearing for Goud’s well being approached the Langar House police station and a sub-inspector from the police station also spoke to Goud’s son asking him to take responsibility for the aged father.

A top Hyderabad jeweller who threw a lavish birthday bash attended by at least 100 people died of the coronavirus on Saturday, sparking panic among the attendees who scrambled to get themselves tested at private labs in the city. The owner of another top jewellery chain, who, too, attended the party, also died of Covid-19 on Saturday. Officials suspect he contracted the infection from the host, who owns a high-end jewellery store in Himayatnagar area.

At least 100 members of the jewellers association attended the party recently. Two days after the bash, the host developed Covid-19 symptoms and was admitted to a private hospital.

With nearly 25,000 new infections in the past 24 hours, total number of covid cases in India now stand at 6.7 lakh. The total is now 6,73,165 -- roughly 800 cases behind Russia, which is the third worst-hit nation from coronavirus. The number of dead stand at 19,268, while there are over 4.9 lakh recoveries

Citizens Against Pollution, a Hyderabad-based organisation, has opposed the Telangana Government’s plan to set up a separate Hyderabad Pharma City saying that the existing pharma industry is responsible for severe pharma pollution and existence of antimicrobial resistant bacteria in the city’s water bodies. The organisation comprises of environment policy experts, former scientists, and environment activists.

“The idea of putting Hyderabad on the international map by setting up pharma city ignores the fact that this city is already on the international map for several reasons, including severe pharma pollution and existence of antimicrobial resistant bacteria in its water bodies. Telangana is suffering immensely from industrial pollution, particularly by pharmaceutical companies. Our rivers, lakes and groundwater are getting polluted severely. Several studies by national and international institutions have shown that hazardous chemicals have completely contaminated our groundwater. Several villages, in Medak, Nalgonda, Rangareddy and Mahabubnagar districts, are facing this problem. Health of villagers is seriously and severely affected. Their livelihoods are vanishing, and in general, poverty is on the rise. At this stage, it would be foolish to invite and establish more pharmaceutical units,’’ a statement from the organisation said.

The Karnataka government will soon build a massive pilgrim amenities complex and marriage hall at Tirumala, the hill abode of Lord Venkateswara, at an estimated cost of Rs 200 crore, a temple official said. The state would soon submit a blueprint for the construction of the Rs 200 crore mega complexes to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) that governs the hill shrine, the official told PTI.

For the last few days, India’s novel Coronavirus numbers are being powered mainly by the surge in the four southern states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. All the four are now in the top ten list of states with maximum caseload in the country, and at the moment these the only four in the top ten where the Coronavirus cases are growing at a rate faster than the national growth rate.

Welcome to the Indian Express live blog. The growth of COVID-19 in southern states has been worrying. Follow this space to track the latest developments from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh