Corona cases in downward trend in ‘T’, Eetala rules out rapid testing, testing in private labs

Telangana reported six additional cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours, a continued downward trend in new infections in the state even as the corona numbers in the country are in the acceleration phase.

Health Minister Etela Rajender said the additional cases increased the state’s total to 1009. He said 374 patients have recovered and released from quarantine and that 610 are undergoing treatment at various hospitals in Telangana. Death toll due to Covid-19 remained at 25.

The Health Minister said there has been a steady decline in the number of coronavirus cases. “The numbers remained in single digits since March 21,” Etela announced. He said that the Covid-19 positive cases curve has almost started flattening in the last few day” and that the novel coronavirus situation is under control in the state.

Etela said the Telangana government ruled out conducting corona tests using the rapid testing kits. “We don’t know how many of the kits are faulty, we are not sure of the efficacy of the testing kits. We have already seen that the Chinese rapid testing kits were found to be faulty. Therefore, our chief minister Chandraskehara Rao garu is against procuring rapid testing kits.”

Further, the state government will also not permit the private laboratories for Covid-19 testing as they charge exorbitantly. He trashed criticism that the government was not conducting enough tests to combat the spread of coronavirus.

Since the outbreak of the virus, Telangana government has enforced one of the stringent measures in the state to contain the spread. It was in fact the first state to announce several restrictions such as closing down schools, shutting cinema halls, malls, gyms and banned public gatherings. It was the first state to invoke the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897.

The Telangana government also constituted a committee of experts to study the measures needed to control incidence of coronavirus in the state and to suggest steps based on successful models from the world over.
Chandrasekhar Rao was the only chief minister in the country to state that he would have no other option but to order the police to shoot-at-sight for violating locdown regulations. He also warned that he would impose a 24-hour curfew if the people of the state continued to disobey lockdown orders. “If people don’t follow coronavirus lockdown, a situation may arise where we’ll have to impose 24-hour curfew and issue shoot-at-sight orders. I urge people not to let such a situation arise,” Rao had said at a press briefing in early April. Several stringent measures were initiated in Telangana. The government announced that secondary contacts will be placed in home quarantine for 28 days. Further, the government had announced that those violating home quarantine protocol will also face passport seizure.

The government had put in place cluster containment strategy to contain the virus within a defined geographic area by early detection of cases, breaking the chain of transmission and thus preventing its spread to new areas. A total of 212 areas across Telangana were declared as virus containment clusters in Telangana. Around 4,000 teams were consituted to enforce quarantine, surveillance, testing suspected cases, quarantine of contacts and isolation of cases.

While KCR took the pandemic seriously, Jagan dealt with it way too casually right from the beginining despite early warnings from the Opposition leaders like N Chandrababu Naidu. The casual approach reflected in Jagan’s personal beliefs and views on corona. Addressing a press briefing on Monday, Jagan said about corona virus, “It is not as bad as the seasonal flu. It is like fever. It will go if you take proper care, wear masks, take proper diet and improve your immunity. If you take these steps, you can fight corona,” he prescribed. The result: Andhra Pradesh has been witnessing an alarming rise in number of corona cases. The number of novel coronavirus cases in Andhra Pradesh has climbed to 1,259 after over 82 fresh cases were recorded on Tuesday morning. The death toll due to Covid-19, meanwhile, remained at 31. The surge in number of cases was because of the lopsided policies of the Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy who consistently downplayed the public health risk of the burgeoning pandemic while the state administration has been slow to respond to the crisis. The Oppoisition leaders like Chandrababu Naidu squarely blamed the state government’s lack of foresight in tackling the virus. The government had spent much of its time in vendetta politics, was more focussed on elections to civic bodies than containing corona virus apart from being caught in a vortex of legal battles and personal attacks against political detractors.