Lockdown in Telangana extended until May 30, curbs stay

HYDERABAD: The Telangana government on Tuesday extended the lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19 till May 30. The state government announced a clampdown first on May 12 for 10 days and it was to end on May 21.
Sources said chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had decided to extend the lockdown till May 30 as it was giving good results and the number of daily positive cases was seeing a downward trend in the past few days. The chief minister’s office (CMO) said KCR spoke with ministers over phone and took their opinion before extending the lockdown.

Earlier, the plan was to hold a cabinet meeting on May 20 to review the situation and take a call on extending the lockdown. “As the ministers are busy monitoring Covid-19 treatment measures in respective districts, KCR cancelled the May 20 cabinet meeting and extended the lockdown,” sources said.
Sources in the CMO said it was necessary to break the chain of infection. “Health department officials confirmed that there has been a decline in the daily cases, which have come down to less than 4,000. If it is extended by another week, it will further help flatten the curve,” they added.
Officials said the present timings of relaxations between 6am and 10am will continue and that exemptions for essential services will also stay.
Apart from AP, Delhi, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Haryana, Punjab and other states have already extended the lockdown that will last till June 7.
Telangana sees 3,900 new Covid-19 cases; 27 dead
Telangana on Tuesday recorded 3,982 new cases of Covid-19 and 27 deaths and saw a further reduction in the number of active cases to 48,110 from over 80,000 over a fortnight ago. With this, the total count of cases now stands at 5,36,766 while the death toll stands at 3,012.
A total of 5,182 patients were declared recovered on Tuesday, taking the total count of recovered patients to 4,85,644. The case fatality rate (CFR) stands at 0.56 per cent increasing from 0.50 per cent over a fortnight ago.
The recovery rate, meanwhile, has improved to 90.47 per cent after having touched 82 per cent. The state now has 108 active containment zones of which 11 are in Hyderabad.
On Sunday, 71,616 samples were tested for the novel coronavirus. Telangana has now completed testing 1.41 crore samples and has reached 3.81 lakh sample testing per million population.
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) recorded 607 new cases on Tuesday, while neighbouring Medchal Malkajgiri recorded 225 cases, Rangareddy recorded 262 and Sangareddy recorded 114 cases.
Outside of Hyderabad, Khammam with 247 new cases recorded the highest number of cases on Tuesday.
Bhadadri-Kothagudem, Karimnagar, Suryapet, Nagarkurnool, Nalgonda and Vikarabad also saw a high number of cases.