Hyderabad, Sep 29 (IANS) Telangana health officials claimed on Tuesday that their prediction of the Covid-19 situation in the state coming under control by September has come true, as the number of cases are steadily coming down.
Director of Public Health G. Srinivas Rao told reporters that positivity rate and contagiousness of the SARS-CoV2 virus are on the decline. He said the government was moving ahead with a clear-cut plan to tackle the situation.
He said the positivity rate in June was highest at 23 per cent but the same has now come down to four per cent. It means out of 100 persons tested, only four persons are positive.
The official said while their prediction that Covid cases would drop by September end had come true, complete normalcy, resembling pre-Covid days, may take a few more months.
Rao said R0 (R nought) is also on the decline in the state. R0 indicates how contagious is a disease is and defined as the average number of people one Covid-19 positive person can infect.
“During May and July, R0 in Telangana was 1.8. It means one positive patient was infecting nearly two more persons. This has now come down to 0.8,” he said.
The official said in Greater Hyderabad, which was witnessing a big spike in cases in July-August, R0 is now less than 0.5.
He said the sate was conducting over 79,000 tests for every 10 lakh population. He pointed out that every day 55,000 Covid tests are being conducted. Only 15.42 per cent of the total positive cases are active.
Telangana has a higher recovery rate than the national average, while the fatality rate is just 0.59 per cent.
Noting that ramping up testing, isolation of symptomatic and asymptomatic persons and people adhering to advisories could be the factors that contributed to the drop in positive cases, the official pointed out that only 25 per cent of beds in government hospitals treating Covid patients are occupied.
A total of 230 private hospitals are treating Covid patients and 50 per cent of the patients are from neighbouring states.
The state has so far reported 1,89,283 Covid cases, of which 29,477 are active. The virus has also claimed 1,116 lives.
–IANS
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