The total COVID-19 cases in Telangana reached 54,059 as 1,593 more swab samples tested positive for coronavirus on Saturday. Eight more COVID-19 patients died. The daily media bulletin, which is usually released in the night every day, was not issued on Saturday. The bulletin, with details recorded on Saturday, was issued on Sunday morning in a new format.
The fresh 1,593 cases included 641 from Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and 171 from Rangareddy and 131 from Warangal Urban districts.
Of the total 54,059 cases, 12,264 are active cases, 41,332 have recovered, and eight COVID-19 patients died.
After the first COVID1-19 case was reported in Telangana on March 2, multiple changes were made to the format of the media bulletins. In the new format issued on Sunday, the order in which positive cases, recoveries, deaths and other details had been displayed was changed.
The significant addition is the list of government health centres where Rapid Antigen Tests are performed.
Till July 8, only RT-PCR tests were performed to detect coronavirus. Thereafter, Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) were introduced. However, most of the people did not have information on where these RATs wer performed. People stood in queues for long hours at major hospitals to undergo the tests.
The list of 320 Primary Health Centres (PHC), Community Health Centres (CHC), Area Hospitals, District Hospitals, as per districts where the RATs were performed, were listed in the new format of the bulletin. This could help in distribution of crowd to all testing centres and avoid crowd at hospitals.
A total of 35,3425 tests to detect coronavirus had been performed to date. However, distribution of number RATs and RT-PCR tests was not mentioned in the new format too. The cumulative Test Positivity Rate is 15.29%.
Mayor tests positive
Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Mayor Bonthu Rammohan on Sunday tested positive for COVID-19. In a tweet, Mr. Rammohan said: “Am tested positive. Am up and active. No difficulty at all. Let’s face COVID with courage and not with fear. Do not get panic if you are tested positive. Thanks for your wishes for my well-being and fast recovery.” Responding to the tweet, Municipal Administration Minister K.T. Rama Rao said: “Get well soon Mayor Garu. I am sure you’ll be back to normal in no time; Take care.”