The Telangana government is identifying people from the state, who attended a religious gathering in Delhi's Nizamuddin area and their contacts, said Municipal Administration & Urban Development (MA & UD) minister KT Rama Rao on Tuesday while adding that the state would soon be free from COVID-19.
His remarks came after several COVID-19 positive cases were found among those who attended the gathering held earlier this month.
Six persons from Telangana, who attended the religious prayer, have died of coronavirus, Telangana Chief Minister's office (CMO) said on Monday.
"We are doing our best to identify the people from Telangana who attended the congregation at Nizamuddin. We are also identifying people who came in contact with them... The Chief Minister is optimistic since the 12 positive cases identified earlier have been turned out to be negative," Rao told ANI.
"Home quarantine of all international travellers, possibly infected with COVID-19 would end on April 7. The Chief Minister said there is no local spread and hopefully we will see a COVID free state by April 7. But in light of what happened in Nizamuddin, there may be slight change but hopefully with all the efforts that government is making we will still be able to make sure our state is COVID free," he said.
Speaking further, Rao said: "Telangana was held as a state which was very proactive regarding COVID-19. It was among the first states to announce lockdown. We are trying to give adequate facilities and attention to the COVID-19 positive cases. Out of 70 people detected as COVID-19 positive, 12 of them have tested negative."
The minister said that Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao -led government is ensuring that migrant workers in Telangana do not leave the state due to the 21-day nationwide lockdown.
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"There are around nine lakh migrant labourers across Telangana. We have established more than 117 camps for them in Hyderabad with essential food supplies, medical equipment and sanitation. We are ensuring that none of them has to migrate," he said.
"Fear psychosis has gripped migrant workers, the belief that whosoever contracts corona is going to die and the virus is fatal. It has led them to believe that they want to breathe their last in their native places. We are communicating to them that the fatality rate is only two per cent. Telangana is so far successful with respect to the containment of the migrant workers' movement. But there is some minor migration here and there," he said.
Hundreds of migrants, a majority of whom are daily wage workers, started rushing to their native places from different states amid uncertainty over their livelihood following the announcement of the nationwide lockdown by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week to contain the spread of coronavirus.
Rao said that the Telangana government is ready to face the challenge of the coronvairus outbreak and asserted that there will be no death of personal protection equipment for health care personnel.
"We have enough equipment and are ready to face the challenge. We have also taken a phased strategy. In the initial first phase, the government sector alone would be take up thousands of patients. The second phase would be where we will also be engaging with the private sector," he said.
"We have ensured that there is enough personal protection equipment which is need for all medical personnel. We have reached out to DRDO and the private sector to ensure there is no dearth of equipment in the next few weeks to come," he added.
The Union Home Ministry had earlier said the death toll due to COVID-19 has risen to 32 and the number of total coronavirus cases to 1,251.
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