Hyderabad: Telangana recorded 337 new COVID-19 cases and two related deaths taking the total tally of cases to 3,03,455 and the toll to 1,671 respectively, the state government said on Monday.
A total of 2,958 patients were under treatment, it said in a bulletin, providing data as of 8 PM on March 21.
The state has been witnessing a gradual spurt in cases for the past over 10 days with a large number of infections being reported from a few schools in the state.
A total of 37,079 samples were tested on March 21.
Cumulatively, the number of samples tested was 96,50,662.
The bulletin said 181 people had recovered on Sunday taking the total number of recoveries to 2,98,826.
The recovery and case fatality rates in the state stood at 98.47 per cent and 0.55 per cent respectively, compared to the national average of 95.7 per cent and 1.4 per cent, the bulletin said.
Meanwhile, an official release said the vaccine wastage in the state stood at 0.76 per cent.
The virus cases is growing exponentially in some districts in Telangana while the total cases over the past week have more than doubled, prompting a fresh alert from the authorities about safety drills.
As per the daily caseload data released by the health department, 394 new cases were reported on Saturday across the state. This was more than double the 157 cases reported a week back, on March 14.
The more-than-doubling of the statewide cases over the week was also reflected in Saturday's 81 Covid-19 cases in Hyderabad city and rest of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation area. On March 14, only 35 cases were reported from the GHMC area.
The highest growth in cases — nearly six times — over the week happened in Ranga Reddy district, abutting Hyderabad. On Saturday, the district reported 64 new cases, up from 11 a week ago. For the same period, Khammam reported four times more cases at 17, up from 4 last week.
Nagarkurnool which had zero cases on March 14, reported 12 cases on Saturday, while Nirmal reported 10, up from one a week ago.
On March 14, while only three districts, Hyderabad and GHMC, Ranga Reddy, and Medchal-Malkajgiri, had reported cases in double digits, a week later, on Saturday, 14 districts — Hyderabad and GHMC, Ranga Reddy, and Medchal-Malkajgiri, Adilabad, Jagitial, Karimnagar, Khammam, Mahbubnagar, Nagarkurnool, Nalgonda, Sangareddy, and Warangal Urban — recorded new Covid-19 cases in double digits.
The severity and speed at which Covid-19 in spreading again in Telagnana can be gauged by the fact that last week, 120 of the 407 patients admitted to government hospitals were in Intensive Care Units, with these numbers rising to 521, and 159 on Saturday.
Similar has been the case with private hospitals that appear to be attracting more patients. From 858 beds occupied by patients a week ago, the number rose to 1,160 on Saturday, while the patient number in ICU wards has risen to 356 on Saturday from 253 on March 14.
