Chief Secretary to the State Government Somesh Kumar has informed the Centre that COVID-19 is under control in Telangana and the positivity rate was only 0.43% with less than 200 positive cases being reported every day.

Participating in a video conference conduced by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba from New Delhi with Chief Secretaries of States on Saturday, Mr. Somesh Kumar stated that conduct of rapid antigen tests at 1,100 locations across the State had been the game changer as it had helped detect positive cases even in rural areas early.

It had also helped controlling the spread of the infectious disease as those tested positive in rapid tests were being isolated immediately and given medicine kits to prevent the spread of the disease.

Vaccination drive

On the COVID-19 vaccination drive in the State, the Chief Secretary brought to the Cabinet Secretary’s notice that about 75% of the healthcare and front line workers were already given the first dose and administering the second dose was in progress.

The State government was also all prepared to take up the third-phase of vaccination for COVID from March 1, he noted.

In his opening comments, the Cabinet Secretary emphasised the need to act decisively in terms of containment, surveillance and large scale vaccination stating that only such measure would help in arresting the rising trend of the cases in some parts of the country.

State government officials – Principal Secretary (Health) S.A.M. Rizvi, Director of Public Health G. Srinivas Rao, Director of Medical Education K. Ramesh Reddy and others attended the video conference.