Telangana slowly shakes off Covid clutch?

HYDERABAD: A steady drop in fresh Covid-19 cases over the past 10 days in Telangana state, along with a gentle reduction in the number of active cases – people classified as undergoing treatment for Covid-19, either at home in isolation or in hospitals – indicates that the state may be slowly making its way out of the debilitating second wave of the disease.

However, the number of Covid-19 patient deaths during this period which has for most part hovered around 20 every day, shows that the variants of the virus causing the second wave led to an increased severity of the disease, despite the daily fall in cases. This is also reflected in the almost reluctant drop in the number of active cases during the 10-day period from May 21 to May 30.

The state health authorities, led by Director of Health Services Dr G. Srinivasa Rao, have been predicting that Telangana state will emerge from the second wave sometime by the end of June. Cases which began rising in March, shot up significantly during April, and well into the first two weeks of May. But now, with new cases showing a decline, officials say they are hopeful that Telangana will emerge from Covid-19 second wave in the next few weeks.

The officials are also reporting that the decline in active cases has meant an increasing availability of beds for Covid-19 patients in the state, though it is still quite a struggle to find an ICU in the city. For instance, as on 9.30 pm on Sunday, every one of the 619 ICU beds in Gandhi Hospital, the nodal centre for Covid-19 treatment in the state, was full. So was the case with the 17 Covid ICU beds at NIMS. In case of TIMS at Gachibowli - the last bed availability update on the state health department’s website was around 8 a.m. on Sunday, there were 16 ICU beds available out of the 137 at the hospital.

“This time, it is taking longer for patients to recover, as they are coming with fairly severe symptoms, particularly because anyone with mild, gentle or moderate symptoms is being discouraged from getting admitted to the hospitals. There are continuing cases of people deteriorating quickly and being rushed to hospitals in search of ICU beds, which is putting their lives at risk,” a senior government doctor said.