One death, 17 fresh cases of COVID-19 in T gana on Saturday

Seventeen COVID-19 cases were reported in Telangana on Saturday, taking the number of positive cases in the state to 1,061. One COVID-19 patient succumbed to the virus, taking the number of deaths cumulatively to 29, a state government press release said.

It said 499 people have been cured or discharged till date from hospitals in the state. The number of people undergoing treatment in hospitals (active cases) till date is 533, it said.

Giving the gender-wise distribution of cases, the bulletin said 705 were males and 356 females (total 1061). Patients in the age group of 21-30 formed 21 per cent of the COVID-19 cases reported in the state as of date, the highest.

The next, at 19 per cent, were those in the 31-40 age group, it said. The lowest of two per cent was detected among people aged between 71 and 80 years.

Health Minister E Rajender on Saturday held a meeting with officials on steps to be taken at the ground level to prevent spread of COVID-19 as some relaxations are likely be given though the lockdown continued. He asked the director of public health to focus on identifying symptoms of the infection,testing and treatment so as to prevent its spread, an official release said.

The minister directed the officials to prepare proposals for recruiting adequate number of doctors in all hospitals and ensure adequate stocks of medicines in all hospitals. The release said city-based Indian Institute of Chemical Technology has developed an indigenous RT-PCR kit in partnership with Genomix Biotech, for COVID-19 diagnosis.