Tuesday, May 17, 2022

Telangana districts see steady rise in Covid cases

By M. Sai Gopal

Published: Updated On - 01:08 AM, Mon - 26 April 21

With a rise in the number of Covid-19 cases, the number of people reaching sample collection booths like this one in Musheerabad has also gone up. The entire first wave of the pandemic in Telangana was driven by areas under GHMC and Rangareddy district.

Hyderabad: Unlike last year when a majority of Covid infections were from Hyderabad and the adjoining district of Rangareddy, the second wave of the pandemic has been widespread in Telangana. Within the first 20 days of this April, districts that did not report Covid cases in more than double digits last year, have started to report over 100 cases on a daily basis.

During the entire course of the pandemic last year, a general assumption among public health experts and epidemiologists was that the SARS-CoV-2 virus finds it easy to infect a large number of people in close settings or densely populated areas. The entire first wave of the pandemic in Telangana was driven by areas under GHMC and Rangareddy district.

This year, largely due to highly infectious new variants of SARS-CoV-2, the second wave of the pandemic has been widespread. On Saturday, a total of 26 districts in Telangana have reported more than 100 Covid cases.

Including GHMC, Medchal-Malkajgiri and Rangareddy districts, there are about 16 districts that have consistently recorded more than 100 cases for the past week to 10 days.

“We share our boundaries with Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, which are witnessing a significant surge in Covid cases. Many districts that share their boundaries like Nizamabad and Adilabad have come under intense pressure during the pandemic. There is also a lot of movement of individuals between Telangana and these States, which has further fuelled the pandemic,” Health Minister Eatala Rajender had pointed out during a recent interaction with press persons.

Senior health officials also point out that to a large extent, fatigue towards Covid appropriate behaviour among the general public also played a big role in fuelling infections. “There are several districts like Karimnagar, Warangal and even Jagitial that do not share borders with neighbouring States. We suspect that movement of individuals as part of trade and commerce, new variants with high infectivity rate and general fatigue might have led to a surge of Covid cases in districts,” a senior official said.