In the past few days, discussions about rising COVID-19 cases seem to be dominating living rooms, office spaces and educational institutions. The spike has been observed since March 9, and the State has logged more than 300 cases for three days in a row.
It was not too long ago that the Health department held felicitation programmes for healthcare workers (HCWs) to mark one year of COVID-19 pandemic in the State. Gandhi Hospital administration presented awards to the HCWs on March 2, the anniversary of the first COVID case to be detected here, and to those who have been at the forefront of managing the pandemic.
The cases, which peaked till October last year, started to drop from November 2020. From 1,400 to 2,000 cases a day throughout October, daily cases dropped to less than 1,000 by November-end. The gradual slide continued. From January 23 of this year, less than 200 cases a day were recorded and that continued throughout February.
According to the details presented in the daily media bulletin issued by the Health department, a maximum of 170 people were detected with the virus in a day from March 1 to 8 this year. Thereafter, the cases started to spike again in Telangana. On March 9 and 10, the cases detected stood at 189 and 194 respectively. Since these were early signs, and not an alarming number, discussions about the ‘spike’ had not begun then.
People started to take notice when 216 cases were detected on March 12. It was after 48 days that over 200 cases had been recorded in the State. Health minister Eatala Rajender held a meeting with district officials where surge in cases in neighbouring States was discussed and directions issued to test over 50,000 samples a day. The State’s caseload increased to 228 the following day. From March 16, the surge picked up again.
Clusters of cases
Apart from the spike, another factor that caught people’s attention was the detection of COVID-19 clusters in schools and hostels. Among the first clusters was one in Mancherial. After a teacher from the Zilla Parishad High School, Mancherial, was detected with the virus, 55 people from the school were tested on March 15. Health teams found 12 more teachers, one cook and a student to have the infection. The following day, the cluster size increased to 50, including six parents of students.
Health teams in most districts started to conduct routine tests at schools and hostels. As testing increased, more clusters started to emerge. Another cluster of 34 cases was detected among students at Telangana Minority Residential School located in Nagole on March 16.
Next, 32 COVID cases were detected among students of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya, Tekrial, in Kamareddy district. In Rangareddy, 22 students at ST Boys Hostel, Rajendranagar, were detected with COVID-19.
ICU admissions increase
As cases increased, admission of COVID-19 patients in Intensive Care Units (ICU) also went up. From around 630-720 ICU admissions per day in December 2020, it had dropped to 340-370 a day between March 1 and 14. On March 15 and 16, there were over 400 ICU admissions of COVID patients. On March 19 and 20, the numbers stood at 513 and 515.