Telangana got its Covid-19 assumptions on asymptomatic cases all wrong
Hyderabad: The Telangana state government on Sunday acknowledged that its much-touted claim that asymptomatic cases of Covid-19 -- in which people do not require any care or attention -- dominate the disease in the state, has been wrong all along.
Information provided by the state's health department on Sunday showed that the government either grossly underestimated, or adopted a fictitious narrative, with respect to informing people about the true impact of Covid-19 on the people.
On Sunday, in the day’s Covid-19 bulletin, the health department inserted a new, table providing details of the number of asymptomatic and symptomatic Covid-19 cases so far in Telangana.
In this table titled ‘Status of symptomatic/asymptomatic’, the health department said of the total 1,23,090 Covid-19 cases so far, 84,932 were asymptomatic which works out to 69 per cent of all cases. The balance 38,158 cases, accounting for 31 per cent, have been symptomatic, the bulletin revealed.
The government’s avowed stand till Sunday was that up to 90 per cent of all Covid-19 infected people remain asymptomatic and that they would not even be aware they caught the disease. Of the rest of the 10 per cent of cases, the government’s stand was that half of them would have mild to moderate symptoms who could be treated without too many complications. It was the balance five per cent of cases who might require intensive care and specialized treatment, has been the state government’s stance for months now.
Incidentally, Sunday’s Covid-19 bulletin for the 24-hour period between 8 p.m. Friday and 8 p.m. Saturday, also included for the first time, details of tests done on primary and secondary contacts of people found to be Covid-19 positive. The health department said that in this 24-hour period, a total of 61,148 tests were conducted in the state and of these, 27,516 were on primary contacts of Covid-19 positive individuals while 8560 tests were performed on their secondary contacts. A further 27,072 tests were on other individuals.
