Telangana records 920 fresh COVID-19 cases; 5 deaths

Hyderabad, Jun 25 () The surge in COVID-19 cases in Telangana continued with 920 people testing positive and five succumbing to the virus on Thursday, taking the tally to 11,364 and the toll to 230, the state government said. Of the fresh cases, as many as 737 were reported from the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) area, followed by Rangareddy and Medchal districts with 86 and 60 cases respectively, a bulletin said. It said 4,688 people have been discharged so far, while 6,446were under treatment in the state, which has been witnessing spike in cases in recent days with the government increasing the testing manifold. According to the bulletin, a total of 3,616 samples were tested on Thursday taking the cumulative figure to 70,934. The COVID-19 test results uploaded on the portal by private labs have shown serious 'abnormality' which may be due to technical issues in the way of testing, it said. The state government has recently announced around 50,000 samples would be tested in Hyderabad and its neighbouring districts as part of measures to check spread of the virus. On Thursday, a team of specialists inspected various private labs to check the availability of infrastructure, trained manpower, procedure of testing and quality control. Based on the reports, an expert committee will evaluate whether the testing protocols in these labs conformed to the ICMR standards or not and decide further course of action, the bulletin said. In line with the stepped up testing, a total of 36,000 samples have been collected from June 16 and of them results were awaited for 8,253 as of now, a release from the Director Public Health and Family Welfare said. As the samples cannot be stored for a longer period and are supposed to be tested within 48 hours after collection, the government has temporarily suspended collection of samples from special camps. However, tests for patients who approach hospitals are being continued, it said. Telangana BJP MLA Raja Singh on Thursday said so far five of his staff -- two drivers and three gunmen -- tested positive for coronavirus and the results of five more were awaited. Meanwhile, convalescent plasma therapy clinical trials have been taken up at the state-run Gandhi Hospital, designated COVID-19 facility, a doctor said. Under the experimental procedure, taken up at several hospitals across the country, plasma from the blood of a recovered COVID-19 patient is transfused to infected persons. The doctor, however, declined to share how many participants were undergoing the trials. GDK VVK VS VS