Hyderabad, Aug 25 (PTI): Telangana has conducted over five lakh COVID-19 tests so far this month and the intensity of the disease is expected to taper by the end of September, a senior official of the Telangana Health department said on Tuesday. Director of Public Health Dr G Srinivas Rao said though there is a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases in rural Telangana, the infection rate is coming down in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) area and it is expected to further reduce in the coming days.

“We have earlier said the cases would gradually come down in the GHMC area by the end of August. We also said though there would be some uptick, the cases in rural Telangana would be under control by the end of September. The trend is as expected,” he said at a press conference. “We brought the disease under control in the GHMC area. By September end the entire state would be under control (with respect to the virus),” Dr Srinivas added.

He said currently there were 23,737 active cases in Telangana with nearly 80 per cent recovery rate and the fatality rate stands at 0.7 per cent against the national average of 1.8 per cent. According to him as on August 24, there are 17,226 asymptomatic patients in home isolation and 6,511 are undergoing treatment in either government or private hospitals.

“We have been doing over 40,000 tests every day for the past four days. So far we have conducted 10,21,054 COVID- 19 tests in the state. In August alone we conducted over five lakh tests. As far as testing is concerned our state is going ahead with a strategy right from the beginning,” he further said. The official said tests per million on an average stands at 27,502 against the national average of 26,228 (as on Monday).

According to the official, about 20,000 employees of the Medical and Health Department were infected by the virus while discharging their duty. He said as many as 50 per cent of the beds in private hospitals are occupied by patients from other states such as Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Another official of the Medical and Health Department said the government ensured that COVID-19 treatment drugs such as remdesivir are available in all hospitals across the state. There is no disturbance to emergency services to patients other than COVID-19 cases in the state, he added.

Telangana recently recruited 319 medical officers on contract basis and most of them have been posted at district level hospitals.PTI GDK SS PTI PTI.