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4 new coronavirus cases in Andhra, Telangana; count goes up to 22
A 50-year-old person, who travelled to Mecca, was admitted to chest hospital in Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and tested positive for Sars-Cov-2 on Friday.
Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have reported four new cases of coronavirus, taking the number of Covid-19 patients to 22 in the two states, officials said on Saturday.
A 50-year-old person, who travelled to Mecca, was admitted to chest hospital in Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and tested positive for Sars-Cov-2 on Friday.
“Out of 135 persons who were tested for coronavirus symptoms till Friday, only three were tested positive and 108 persons tested negative. The test results of 24 others are awaited,” Andhra Pradesh’s medical and health department bulletin said on Saturday morning.
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In Telangana, an official bulletin of the medical and health department said two Indonesian men, aged 27 and 60, who arrived in Karimnagar from Delhi as part of a delegation on a religious mission, tested positive for Sars-Cov-2 on Friday.
They were admitted to the Fever Hospital in Hyderabad, where eight other Indonesians who also tested positive for the deadly disease on Tuesday and Wednesday, are undergoing treatment.
“Their condition is stable,” the bulletin said.
The third case was that of an 18-year-old girl from Hyderabad, who returned from London and got admitted to a private hospital. She is undergoing treatment at the government hospital for tuberculosis and chest diseases in Erragadda.
The sudden detection of Covid-19 in as many as 10 Indonesians in Karimnagar, raised an alarm in the state.
The administration in Karimnagar town imposed section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) on Thursday prohibiting the gathering of four or more people with authorities conducting door-to-door surveys of the possible cases in the areas where these Indonesians moved.
Enquiries by district authorities revealed that a group of 13 Indonesians came from Delhi to Ramagundam in the Sampark Kranti Express on March 14 and then went to Karimnagar by auto-rickshaws. Officials said 90 passengers travelled in the same coach, S-9 of the train in which these Indonesians travelled.
“By Friday, the authorities traced the details of 33 members who travelled in the coach, including railway employees and vendors who travelled in the coach. These 33 members were identified Renigunta near Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh and were quarantined in the railway hospital for 10 days,” an official of the health department said.
An official release from Telangana chief minister’s office said K Chandrashekhar Rao had planned to visit Karimnagar on Saturday to take stock of the situation and review the measures with the officials.
“However, on the advice of the doctors and the possible attendance of officials in big numbers, he cancelled the tour,” the official release said.
The government said on Saturday the number of Sars-Cov-2 cases in India rose to 258 on Saturday after 35 fresh cases were reported in various parts of the country.
Among the 258 people are 39 foreign nationals, including 17 from Italy, three from the Philippines, two from the UK, one each from Canada, Indonesia and Singapore.
The total figure also includes four deaths reported from Delhi, Karnataka, Punjab and Maharashtra so far.
