Air-conditioner showrooms, automobile and sparepart shops across Telangana will reopen on Saturday with the State government relaxing lockdown restrictions on them.
They will be in addition to the registration and road transport organisation offices which were already permitted by the government. The remaining lockdown measures will continue as it is, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao announced after a high-level meeting convened by him to discuss implementation of lockdown.
On the occasion, he asked officials to send people from elsewhere in the country landing in Hyderabad by flights back to their States by buses straight from the airport. The migrant workers who arrived here by trains from other States should undergo tests.
Quoting him, a release later said the State government will revise its strategy after examining the new guidelines likely to be issued by the Centre on its own ongoing phase of lockdown which will end on Sunday. The State government will review the situation in the light of the Centre’s guidelines and formulate a strategy for implementation.
“The government had no option but implement a strategy to live with coronavirus as it is not known how long it will continue.”
Mr. Rao noted that coronavirus cases were not active anywhere in the State except four containment zones of Hyderabad -- L.B. Nagar, Malakpet, Charminar and Karwan. There were 1,442 families in these zones. The districts of Yadadri, Jangaon and Mancherial were also free of the virus though some migrant workers from there tested positive on return. Therefore, the three districts were not considered as affected.
The lockdown was strictly implemented in the four zones of Hyderabad where people with symptoms were shifted for investigation and given treatment. There was no need to nurse fears about the virus as the number of people who recovered were large. The mortality rate of virus in the State was only 2.38 as against the national average of 3.5%.
Mr. Rao asked the officials to continue the steps taken to check spread of coronavirus while launching a preventive drive against seasonal diseases that were identified with the onset of monsoon.
He counselled caution against people coming to the State by air from abroad and elsewhere in the country by trains. They should be tested and referred to hospitals if they were found to be affected. Otherwise, they should be confined to home quarantine.
The meeting was attended by Ministers, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, Director General of Police M. Mahender Reddy and senior officials.
