1,850 fresh Covid cases, Telangana tally crosses 22,000-mark

HYDERABAD: Telangana’s Covid-19 count crossed 22,000 mark on Saturday. With 1,850 fresh cases, the state’s tally rose to 22,312. Death toll increased to 288 with five more fatalities being reported.
The state conducted as many as 6,427 tests, a single-day highest, on Saturday. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, Telangana has carried out 1,10,545 tests, official data released on Saturday said.
Districts such as Nizamabad, Karimnagar and Nalgonda continued to witness a surge in cases apart from Ranga Reddy, MedchalandWarangalUrban that saw a sharp rise in numbers for the 10th day in a row. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), the worsthit area in Telangana, recorded 1,572 new infections.
T adds 7 more hospitals to list of govt testing centres
The test reports of one erring private lab that health authorities, on Friday had said, was being kept in abeyance, continued to be withheld, even as some sources from the department indicated that several labs — served notices by the government — have voluntarily put testing on hold and have started uploading previous reports.
“The tests of the lab will remain in abeyance till an inquiry is completed into the matter. Meanwhile, 10 more labs in addition to the 18 which were previously granted permission for testing by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) have got the permission and have started doing tests. So, even if some of the erring labs remaining shut for a few days it will not hamper the number of tests being done,” said an official from the state health department.
Further, the state government said it has added seven more hospitals to the list of government testing centres, including the district hospital in Gadwal, Medak, Asifabad and Suryapet, to further ramp up testing.
Meanwhile, 1,342 patients were discharged from various hospitals and quarantine centres on Saturday. At present, there are 10,487 active cases in Telangana.