Telangana Lockdown Extended Till May 7

As expected, the lockdown in Telangana will continue unrelaxed beyond today, and even beyond the union government's end date of May 3.

After a 6-hour-long cabinet meeting today, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao addressed a press conference stating that the cabinet had taken a unanimous decision to extend the lockdown in the state to May 7, and that all the rules, norms and guidelines prescribed when the lockdown started in the state on May 23 would continue. In fact, the lockdown would be enforced even more strictly now, he said.

The CM said that multiple surveys had shown that 95% of the people of the state preferred the extension of the lockdown.

He added that there was no data that justified a relaxation of the lockdown. The number of new infections today was 49, compared to 43 yesterday.

He asked people to stay indoors except for grocery shopping and emergencies, and said that strict action would be taken against people moving around for no serious reason. He said that 50,000 vehicles had bee seized in the past few days of people who were found driving for no serious reason.

On the positive side, the CM said that all people in Telangana undergoing treatment now for Covid-19 would be cured by May 1. There are 651 active Covid-19 patients in Telangana currently, of a total of 858 persons infected (186 have recovered and 26 have passed away).

He also said that the migrant labourers stranded in Telangana will be given rations and money just as white ration card holders are.

KCR also said that the state has the capacity to test 1,500 persons per day now. The optimal testing capacity is 150 per 1,00,000 citizens per day, or 52,500 tests per day in the case of Telangana with a population of 3.5 crores. Clearly, the state has a long way to go to get there.

For the uninitiated, the union government has prescribed gradual lifting of the lockdown starting tomorrow. KCR has said that those relaxations will not be allowed in Telangana.