The TRS government, which has repeatedly been
pulled up by the state's apex court for its "inability" to take strong measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 in Telangana, today submitted a report on the measures it was taking to manage the pandemic to the court.
In the status report, the government revealed, in detail, all the steps it had taken to arrest the
skyrocketing case tally. It said that it had performed a total of 23.55 lakh tests between April 1 and April 25, and clarified that of these, 4.39 lakh tests were RTPCR tests and the remaining 19.16 lakh were rapid antigen tests.
The KCR government also told the HC that although it had been conducting a high number of tests, it was currently working to further increase testing across the state.
It pointed out that the infection rate in Telangana was 3.5%, and that the fatality rate too was low.
The report included the various virtual high-level review meetings of expert committees that had been convened to streamline the containment process.
Outlining some of the measures it had taken, the TRS regime mentioned that it had begun to regulate the functioning of pubs, bars, and liquor shops in the state, and added that the officials of the excise department had been making frequent inspections of these establishments to ensure compliance with all safety norms.
Talking about the allocation of oxygen, the government said that the Centre had allocated 430 metric tonnes of oxygen to the state and that oxygen was also being brought in from different areas of the country to meet the rising demand for the same.
The shortage of Remdisivir injections was addressed in the report as well. The government informed the court that in order to prevent the black marketing of the drug, IAS officer Preethi Meena had been appointed as a supervisory nodal officer.
The report is likely to be a painstakingly detailed one after a bench of the HC recently described the government's attitude towards the pandemic as "callous", and slammed it for its
"unsatisfactory and feeble" responses to the PILs filed on matters related to the control of Covid-19.