HYDERABAD: After the High Court pulled up the Telangana government for its poor response in handling of Covid-19, the government defended itself and told the HC that the state’s recovery rate and mortality rate were still better than the national average. After drawing a sharp criticism from the HC, the KCR government also agreed to release a 61-page report with all details of hospitals, area wise cases, beds, etc. Earlier, it only released a twopage bulletin on Covid reports in the state.
The K. Chandrashekhar Rao-led government claimed that the Covid-19 fatality rate in the state was at 0.84 percent compared to 2.26 per cent at the national level. Similarly, the recovery rate in Telangana was at 74.3 percent as against 64 percent in the country. In the meantime, Telangana’s chief secretary also ordered to change the advisory in the bulletin so that youngsters could become more cautious and take precautions to stay safe. The new bulletin advised children below 10 years of age and senior citizens above 60 years of age to stay indoors.
Earlier, the government sought two-week time to implement the court’s orders but it started working on them from the first day only. Now, the Telangana government is taking steps to improve the infrastructure in districts and rural areas to contain the virus. However, the state also recorded 1,764 additions and 12 deaths reported within a single day. In all the cases recorded here, 66 percent were men and 34 percent were women. Most of them were in the age group of 31 to 40 years only. So far about four lakh tests have been conducted. Health officials said 65.7 percent of those tested positive were in the age group of 21-50, dismissing the claim that only those above 60 years and below 10 were the most vulnerable to the virus.