Covid: Time to mask up, cut virus spread to Telangana districts, say experts

HYDERABAD: After having dropped to 0.3%, the positivity rate for Covid-19 has increased to 0.67% in the last one week. While officials had previously predicted that cases will see a surge after mid-June, a slight increase has begun, and the upward trend is likely to continue.
Overall the cases have jumped from 25-30 per day a fortnight back to 60-75 per day now. Experts say that it is time to mask up again to cut out the spread. Reacting to the surge in cases, the state government on Saturday instructed health personnels and government hospitals to ramp up vigil and perform tests.
Health minister T Harish Rao, held a review meeting with the officials and discussed the Covid-19 situation. "Although positivity rate is not too high, we need to be vigilant. People must obey Covid rules including social distancing and wearing masks, the minister said asking the people to undergo Covid tests if symptoms persist.
"The positivity rate in the world has increased by 75%. Four thousand cases were reported across the country yesterday. Covid cases are on the rise in 23 states of the country and cases are doubling in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu," the minister said.
He also asked officials to identify children who have not yet been vaccinated and vaccinate them. Similarly people who have not taken a booster dose have to be identified and administered the shot.
Meanwhile, almost all of the cases are currently being seen in the GHMC limits with Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy and Madchal Malkajgiri accounting for 97% of the cases, as eight districts recorded new cases on Saturday, as compared to just 2-3 a fortnight back. In a matter of a week the number of cases in Hyderabad district went up from 34 cases on May 25 to 61 in Hyderabad on June 1. In Ranga Reddy the number of cases dropped from 11 to 7 in the same period.
"This is the main reason that we need to ensure that the cases don't spread from the city to districts. Currently almost all the cases and concentrated in the city and since majority of the patients testing positive are asymptomatic, this will make detecting difficult in rural areas as people do not go for testing unless they have serious symptoms," said an official.