With the State registering 10 more Covid-19 positive cases that take the total to 59 cases, the Telangana government has announced extension of the shut down till April 15 (from March 31) to sync with the 21-day national lock down. It appealed to the people to stay home to slow down the spread of the Novel Coronavirus infections.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao said Government is readying 12,400 beds, including 1,400 for ICU (intensive care) beds, in case the situation warrants. Now that the international arrivals have stopped, the State is gearing up to tackle the community spread of the infection.

As it asks the retired doctors to get into action, it directed the managements of private medical colleges to be ready for treating Covid-19 patients.

Stating that people’s cooperation is helping in reducing the exposure to the Covid-19, he assured all the people from outside not to worry about their food and accommodation. “They are not going to close down the hostels,” he said.

Going by statistics, 80.90 per cent of the people infected with novel coronavirus, 13.80 per cent would require isolation facilities and 4.7 per cent would need critical care. “We are setting up isolation facilities at places like Gachibowli Stadium. We placed orders for 500 ventilators. Some of them have already arrived. In all, we can provide 12,400 beds,” the Chief Minister said.

“If we can treat 12,400 patients in hospitals, it means that we can take load up to about 70,000 patients, if you include those 80 per cent with mild symptoms,” he said.

Giving an update on Covid-19 spread and State’s preparedness, he said the State has not allowed private diagonistic laboratories to test samples. “We will consider when the capacities in the public sector is fully utilised,” he said.

“We can test 800 samples every day at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology,” he said.

He was referring to ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research)’s permission to certain private entities, including Apollo, Vimta Labs and Vijaya Diagnostics, to test the Covid-19 samples. “We have not given permission yet,” he said.

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