No second wave post polls, experts question numbers

HYDERABAD/VIJAYAWADA/T’PURAM/CHENNAI : With a dramatic drop in testing — from over 50,000 samples to just 28,980 samples — Telangana managed to detect only 384 cases of Covid-19 on Sunday. Three deaths were also reported on the day, taking the death toll to 1,496.More significantly, with nearly a fortnight having passed since the GHMC elections, the State has only detected 7,790 cases of Covid-19 between December 1 and December 14. During the same period, 6,57,625 individuals were tested. A total of 1,501 of the 7,790 cases were reported from within GHMC limits.

The figures are low even though the Telangana Health department, on December 2, had issued warnings of a second wave of Covid-19 in the State owing to increased movement of people during the elections.
Experts note that the numbers in the medical bulletin only reveal half the picture of the extent of spread of the virus in the State, especially because the elections saw extremely poor mask compliance and almost no social distancing, which would have led to much higher numbers than the official ones. 

“Nearly 80 per cent of testing is within government set ups where Rapid Antigen Tests have been deployed, whereas states like AP, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are doing nearly 80-100 per cent of the testing using RTPCR kits. The latter are good in detecting high viral load symptomatic cases but not for pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic individuals. We need to see a shift to RTPCR tests and follow the ‘Track, Test, Treat’ method as recommended,” noted Dr BR Shamanna, Professor, University of Hyderabad.

305 cases in AP, 541 recover
Andhra Pradesh on Sunday added just 305 infections to its Covid-19 aggregate as all districts reported below 50 positives each, according to the latest media bulletin by the State Command Control Room. 
The state tested another 45,000 samples in the 24 hours ending Sunday 9 am. The highest one-day spike of 45 cases was reported from West Godavari. Recovery rate stands at 98.65 per cent, higher the country-wide figure of 94.98 per cent.

4,481 recover in Kerala
As many as 2,707 persons tested positive for Covid-19 in the state on Monday, while 4,481 recovered from the disease. The comparatively low number of cases is due to the fewer tests carried out on the day. Only 31,893 samples were processed on Monday. The test positivity rate (TPR) stood at 8.49 per cent. Of the new patients, 2,291 contracted the infection through local transmission.

TN crosses 8-lakh mark
With 1,141 fresh cases reported on Monday, Tamil Nadu becomes the fourth State to right eight lakh Covid-19 cases. The othere three are  Maharastra, Karnataka and AP. Director of Public Health Dr TS Selvavinayagam said so many cases were recorded only because of continued surveillance.