Telangana Govt must boost testing, tracing to handle Covid third wave: Cong

Hyderabad, Jan.6 (Maxim News): The Congress party on Thursday demanded that the Telangana Government seriously implement the Test, Trace, and Treatment Strategy to control the third wave of Covid-19 which has already struck the country, including the State.

“Covid-19 cases in Telangana have increased by five times in the last one week. However, the State Government took no additional measures to handle the situation. The testing for Covid-19 has remained low while no efforts are being made to trace the contacts of infected persons,” Hyderabad City Congress Committee (HCCC) Minorities Department Chairman Sameer Waliullah said in a statement on Thursday.

Sameer pointed out that the Covid-19 cases have increased by almost five times in the last one week. As against 280 positive cases reported on December 30, a total of 1520 fresh cases were registered on 5th January. While 37,926 samples were tested on 30th December, a total of 42,531 samples were tested on 5th January. The figures clearly show a huge jump in the positivity rate which is also an indication of a third wave of Covid-19 striking Telangana. He pointed out that on 7th December, 2021, Health Minister T. Harish Rao had announced that the Covid tests would be increased to one lakh per day. However, for reasons best known to the Health Minister and other higher authorities, the number of tests hovered around 35,000 per day. He said that the State Government should increase the Covid tests so as to identify all the infected persons and provide them treatment.

The Congress leader said the Telangana Government has been hushing up the real statistics of Covid-19 cases and deaths since beginning. He said instead of presenting a false impression of gaining control over Covid-19 situation by hiding figures, the State Government should adopt a realistic approach. If the cases have increased by five times in the last one week, then the authorities should’ve increased the testing by at least three times. Further, he said less attention was being paid on contact tracing. “Instead of cross-checking whether or not a person is infected, with or without symptoms, the health authorities are apparently expecting the people to self-report after they notice symptoms of Covid-19. Since a majority of infected persons could be asymptomatic, they unknowingly act as super-spreaders of Covid-19,” he feared.

He said that the State Government should review its approach in implementing the Covid-19 guidelines. He said that the authorities, especially the police department, appear more focused on imposing fines from the violators. The police officials are promptly collecting a fine of Rs. 1,000 from people for not wearing a mask and letting them off. Instead of searching for violators to impose fines, the authorities should spot such people and provide a mask at free of cost. He said masks should be kept at all streets and other public places at free of cost which would encourage everyone to wear a mask. Instead of simply putting up a board ‘No entry without mask’, the superstores, malls and other offices should keep a bundle of masks and santizers at the entrance.

“The third wave of Covid-19 is now a reality. Instead of hiding figures, we must confront the situation in a strategic and intelligent manner. We’ve lost many lives in the last two waves of Covid-19 due to negligence. We must not repeat the same mistakes. We must focus on saving each and every life by taking all required measures to minimize the damage,” he said. (Maxim News)

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