The number of COVID-19 cases in Telangana crossed 2.5 lakh on Saturday with 1,440 more people testing positive for the novel coronavirus. The tally now stands at 2,50,331.
Time taken to record around 50,000 cases has been dropping, but officials from the Health department have cautioned people about a possible surge in positivity rate in view of large gatherings during the festivals of Bathukamma and Dasara last month.
From March 2 to July 23 (144 days), as many as 3,22,326 samples were tested, leading to the detection of the first set of 50,000 cases. The next set of over 50,000 cases was recorded in 29 days (July 24 to August 21) after 5,68,847 samples were put to test.
From around 1,000 to a maximum of 3,500 tests per day till end of June, it gradually increased to around 20,000 tests per day by July-end.
The number of people examined daily sharply increased from August 21, to around 60,000 per day. And it took only 19 days to record the next 48,311 cases after testing over 10.62 lakh samples. However, the tests started to drop to around 55,000 per day from mid-September to around 40,000 by end of October.
It took longer to record the subsequent sets of around 50,000 cases. To go from 1.5 lakh cases to 2 lakh cases, it took 25 days when close to 13 lakh people were tested. Then the next 49,720 cases were recorded in 34 days (October 5 to November 7) by testing 13,76,873 samples.
Though it is taking comparatively more number of tests and days to detect a set of 50,000 cases, it is also true that the daily tests have come down.
At a meeting involving the Health department, Panchayat Raj department and Women and Child Welfare department held on October 27, officials stressed the need to ramp up testing.
Daily update
Of the 42,673 people who underwent tests on Saturday, 1,440 were found to be positive for coronavirus while the results of 499 were awaited. Five more COVID-19 patients died.
The new 1,440 cases include 278 from Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation region, 133 from Medchal-Malkajgiri, 112 from Rangareddy, 97 from Bhadradri-Kothagudem and 91 from Khammam. The lowest of four cases were recorded from Narayanpet and nine from Jogulamba Gadwal.
So far, a total of 46,18,470 samples were put to test and 2,50,331 were found positive for the virus. Of the total positive cases detected so far, 19,890 were active, 2,29,064 have recovered and a total of 1,377 patients have died.
At the 61 government hospitals, 4,650 oxygen beds and 1,365 ICU beds were available on November 7. In the 225 private hospitals, 2,912 oxygen beds and 2,258 ICU beds were vacant.