For eight days between March 30 and May 10, Telangana recorded single digit COVID-19 cases. On Monday, the total number of cases spiked after Hyderabad city recorded 79 positive cases. A comparable single-day jump in numbers was on April 3, when 75 cases were logged. While the low numbers in the State should have boosted confidence among citizens, it has only triggered misgivings.
“There have been two deaths in my apartment complex where a number of senior citizens live. Even the members of households where the deaths have taken place have not been tested,” says Raji Reddy, who lives in an apartment complex near Sindhi Colony in Secunderabad. The apartment has been quarantined with restriction on movement.
Concerns raised
Aditya Belde took to Twitter on May 11 to report his uncle’s death and its non-inclusion in the day’s bulletin issued by the Telangana Health Ministry. “I am Aditya my Babai B Srinivas (Hyd) who has tested corona positive on 9 May and expired on 10 May my total family has quarantined & I see no deaths on 10th in all the major websites. Can u plz take up this case up and give us a clear clarity (sic),” wrote Mr. Belde and tagged IT Minister K. T. Rama Rao and Health Minister Eatala Rajender.
On Tuesday, officials visited the family in the quarantine facility at Erragadda and told them that the family member’s death was not added due to a mapping issue.
Missing numbers are part of the big puzzle of Telangana’s fight against COVID-19 pandemic where the first positive case was recorded on March 2. The Health Ministry bulletin had 10 rows of information in the initial days including number of passengers screened at airports, self-reported passengers, numbers reported by others, people who are asymptomatic and advised home isolation, symptomatic and hospitalised, samples collected, negative, positive and results awaited.
Shrinking statistics
Information about number of samples collected ceased to flow on March 26 when 1,319 persons were tested during the period. Within days, the 10 rows shrunk to just four. On April 2, the bulletin had four rows and two columns. Then for a few days, there was district-wise break up of the positive cases. Currently, the bulletin is being bulked up with information about how many districts have recorded zero positive cases.
Fuelling the misgivings about the spread of the disease is social media where even movement of an ambulance is being peddled as a discovery of COVID-19 case in a locality. Messages about new are also rife on resident welfare association WhatsApp groups.
