Telangana has been witnessing a rapid rise in the number of Covid-19 deaths and positive cases in the last 15 days, raising an alarm in the state.
On Tuesday, the state reported four deaths and 99 positive cases, taking the total number of deaths to 92 and the positive cases to 2,891.
The death toll was 34 on May 18, when most restrictions on people’s movement were removed with lockdown 4.0 coming into force, which led to 58 more casualties in a span of just 15 days.
Similarly, the total number of positive cases in the state went up from 1,661 cases on May 18 to 2,891 on Tuesday, a steep rise of 1,230 cases. In the last four days alone, the number of positive cases has shot up by 466 and deaths by 21.
According to the official bulletin released by the state medical and health department, out of 99 new positive cases reported on Tuesday, 87 are local residents and the remaining 12 are migrant labourers returning from other states. Of the local cases, 70 are from Greater Hyderabad municipal corporation limits and seven are from adjacent Ranga Reddy district.
The four deaths reported on Tuesday include a 42-yr old man with pre-existing cardiac problem, a 41-year old man with Thyroid disorder and two women, a 70-yr old and a 60-year old, both suffering from hypertension.
According to director of medical and health G Srinivasa Rao, the steep rise in the number of deaths and positive cases after the relaxations in lockdown since May 18 were mainly due to the increased movement of people from one place to another.
“People are travelling across the state and some of them are not following the basic preventive measures like wearing a mask, maintaining safe physical distancing and avoiding crowding. This has resulted in a surge in the cases,” he said.
He added that a large number of migrants returning from states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Bihar etc were being put in home quarantine by the district authorities to break the chain of transmissions.