Telangana’s COVID-19 cases crossed one lakh on Friday with 2,474 new cases recorded on August 21. The total stood at 1,01,865. The first case in the State was detected on March 2, the first 10,000 cases in 115 days, and 90,000 more cases in 58 days.
The latest 10,000 cases leading up to the one lakh mark were recorded in seven days from August 15. A total of 1,58,738 tests were performed in this duration. There are two prime reasons for the rapid increase in cases from third week of June. The first is relaxation of lockdown from beginning of June which led to increased movement of people, and subsequent increase in transmission of the virus. However, A far lower testing rate in Telangana till mid-June, drew a lot of criticism.
There was an increase in testing from June 15 in government laboratories, and permission was given to private laboratories too. After the tests were increased, more cases are being detected. Till June 15, less than 250 cases were being recorded per day. By the end of the month, around 1,000 cases were logged on a daily basis.
While it took 115 days to record the first 10,000 cases, it took less than 10 days to detect each of the next nine sets of 10,000 cases till one lakh. Of those, There were 22,908 active cases, 80,586 recovered, and 755 died.
The State ranks ninth in terms of total cases across the country. Senior officials from the State Health department earlier said that the cases in GHMC will come down by the end of August while cases will continue to increase in other districts only to decrease by end of September.
The 2,474 cases detected on August 21 were the highest in a day. One of the reasons could be further spike in the number of tests. While around 23,000 samples were tested in a day till August 20, it shot up to 43,095 on August 21. On August 22, 40,666 tests were conducted, and 2,384 cases detected.
Of new cases, 472 were from Greater Hyderabad, 148 from Nizamabad, 137 from Nalgonda, 131 from Rangareddy, 120 from Karimnagar, 110 from Suryapet, 105 each in Khammam and Jagtial. This clearly indicates that the cases are continuing to surge in districts other than in urban localities.
No respite for Kerala
Kerala reported 1,908 new cases on Sunday, its cumulative case burden going up to 58,262.
With 37,649 persons recovering, active cases or patients under treatment in hospitals stood at 20,330. The death toll rose to 223, with the Health department confirming five more fatalities. Two deaths were reported from Thiruvananthapuram and one each from Kozhikode, Kollam and Alapuzha.
Locally acquired infections constituted 1,768 new cases out of 1,908 reported on Sunday. This included 50 health care worker. In 160 cases, no epidemiological link could be found.
On Sunday, Thiruvananthapuram reported 397 cases, of which 384 cases, including those of 17 health care workers, were locally acquired infections. Alapuzha reported 241 cases, Ernakulam 200, Malappuram 186, Kannur 143, Kollam 133, Kozhikode 119, Thrissur 116, Kottayam 106, Pathanamthitta 104, Kasaragod 85, Palakkad 39, Idukki 29 and Wayanad 10 cases.
The State tested 36,353 samples in 24 hours. The number of persons currently quarantined in the State is 1,82,525, of whom, 16,529 are isolated in hospitals.
The areas designated as hot spots in the State has gone up to 622.
Grim mark in A.P.
COVID-19 touched the 3.5 lakh-mark for positive cases in Andhra Pradesh, with 7,895 cases and 93 deaths added on Sunday. On Saturday, 10,276 cases and 97 deaths were reported.
The Health Department said the tally touched 3,53,111 and the toll was 3,282, putting the death rate at 0.93%.
The number of recoveries continues to rise. In the 24-hour period, 7,449 patients were discharged, taking the total number of recoveries to 2,60,87. With this, the recovery rate further increased to 73.66%. At present, There were 89,742 active patients in the State.
Tests per million were 60,637, a total of 32,38,038 samples were tested in all, including 46,712 in the last day. The positivity rate was 10.91%.
Nellore reported 16 new deaths, West Godavari (13), Chittoor (11), Kurnool (10), Prakasam (9), Kadapa (8), Srikakulam (6), Visakhapatnam (5), East Godavari (4), Anantapur, Guntur and Krishna (3 each) and Vizianagaram (2).
East Godavari reported 1,256 new cases, the highest, Nellore (985), Chittoor (934), Prakasam (923), Kurnool (685), West Godavari (671) and Guntur (507), Anantapur (466), Visakhapatnam (451), Kadapa (448), Srikakulam (227), Vizianagaram (200) and Krishna (142).
The tally of East Godavari is inching closer to the 50,000-mark, while the figure of Guntur has crossed the 30,000-mark. West Godavari, Chittoor and Visakhapatnam tallies are closer to the 30,000-mark.
The tallies of other districts are as follows: East Godavari (49,245), Kurnool (38,835), Anantapur (34,793), Guntur (30,392), West Godavari (29,860), Chittoor (29,830), Visakhapatnam (29,804), Nellore (22,361), Kadapa (20,523), Srikakulam (18,449), Prakasam (16,581), Vizianagaram (15,668), and Krishna (13,875).
In Karnataka, 5,938 new cases were detected on Sunday, taking the total to 2.77 lakh.
The Health and Family Welfare department said 4,996 patients were discharged. With this, the numbers of discharges is 1.89 lakh. The recovery rate in the State is now 68.23%.
Also, 68 new fatalities were reported, taking the total number of COVID-19-related deaths to 4,683. There were 16 deaths of COVID-19 positive patients from non COVID-19 causes. Of 83,551 active cases, 787 were in ICUs.
On Sunday, 40,848 tests were done in the State. In Bengaluru Urban, 2,126 new positive cases and five deaths were reported. The number of discharges in Bengaluru Urban is twice the number of active cases in the city. While the number of discharges as of Sunday stands at 71,329, the number of active cases stands at 34,877. The recovery rate in the State capital stands at 66.12 %
Mysuru, which had not reported any positive cases for two days due to a strike by doctors, on Sunday reported 92 new cases. However, no discharges were recorded in the department’s media bulletin.
No let-up in Tamil Nadu
The Tamil Nadu Health Department recorded 5,975 fresh cases of COVID -19 on Sunday, and put active patients in Tamil Nadu at 53,541. Till date, 3,79,385 persons had tested positive in the State.
At the same time 6,047 persons were discharged from various facilities following treatment taking the overall tally of those discharged as on date to 3,19,327.
The northern districts continued to register higher case numbers. Chennai led with 1,298 more persons testing positive. In the city 1,040 were discharged on Sunday taking the total number of those under treatment as on date to 13,223. Total cases in the city till date were 1,25,389.
While in Chengalpattu 352 fresh positive cases were identified, in Cuddalore 380 persons tested positive. In Tiruvallur 354 tested positive and in Kancheepuram it was 222, health officials said. Among the western districts, Coimbatore with 392 new cases had the highest. In Salem, 261 persons tested positive.
The State government recorded 97 deaths. Private hospitals accounted for 21 deaths and government facilities the rest.
Ten people whose deaths were recorded on Sunday had no co-morbidities, the daily bulletin of the Department of Public Health stated. All the 10 deceased were admitted as patients in government medical college hospitals.
The number of those aged over 60 years infected by the virus rose to 48,497 on Sunday.
Four of those whose deaths were recorded as due to the virus on Sunday were over 90 years old. Among them was a 91-year-old man who had no co-morbid conditions. He was admitted in a private hospital on August 16 and had tested positive on Friday. He died on Saturday due to acute respiratory disorder caused by COVID-19 pneumonia.
A 95-year-old man from Karur admitted on August 11 to the government medical college hospital there after testing positive died on August 18 due to bronchial asthma, which exacerbated his condition.
A 92-year-old man from Chennai with hypertension who had been admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital here on August 18 after testing positive a day before died on August 20.
A 92-year-old man also from the city who had been admitted to Kilpauk Medical College Hospital on August 20 after testing positive two days earlier, died on August 21. He had coronary artery disease ad was hypertensive.
(With inputs from Bengaluru, Thiruvananthapuram and Vijayawada bureaus)
