The Telangana Government has issued guidelines for testing and treatment for COVID-19 in private laboratories and hospitals in the wake of increasing COVID-19 cases in the state. Stating that the virus has not been transmitted to the community, the Minister said the state government is taking all out measures to contain the spread of the virus.

After a high level review meeting with the senior officials today, State Health Minister E. Rajender informed the media that the fee for Coronavirus test should not exceed 2,200 rupees in private laboratories. Announcing the upper cap for treatment in private hospitals for COVID-19 patients, he said it should not be more than 7,500 per day for providing treatment without the need for a ventilator.

The state government has already announced that it will scale up testing and 50 thousand tests will be done in 30 Assembly Constituencies in Hyderabad and three other districts.

Meanwhile, Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike is planning to impose a new user fee for the garbage disposal work. The Special Commissioner in the city Corporation D Randeep informed that apart from solid waste management cess collected now, user charges will be charged for clearing garbage from citizens and organizations.

Bengaluru generates 4000 tonnes of garbage everyday and the city corporation spends 1000 crore rupees to dispose of it. Just 60 to 70 crore rupees is generated from the cess charged to the people. Hence to improve the revenue, the City Corporation is planning to impose 200 rupees user charges for those generating below 100 kilogram garbage per month and 600 to 14000 rupees for those generating above 100 kilograms per month.

The Special Commissioner in the city Corporation D Randeep also confirmed about plans to improve waste processing plants capacity from the present 1500 tonnes to 3000 tonnes. He has also informed that talks are on to set up wealth from waste projects in the city.

The active caseload of Covid-19 in Tamil Nadu remains 19,676 with 1138 patients returning home after recovery in the last 24-hours. The recovery rate in the state is estimated to be 55.9 % and the mortality rate 0.97 %. 1974 people were recorded positive for the virus recently, including 1415 in Chennai. The total number of infected patients has surged to 44,661 in the state. On the other hand, 38 patients fell victim to the disease taking the toll to 435.

With Chennai witnessing an increased caseload of Covid-19 infections, the authorities have redesigned the strategy to contain the spread.

The state health department and the Chennai Corporation have jointly revised the strategy to tackle the growing Covid-19 menace. In all the 200 divisions in the civic body’s 15 zones, a separate team has been formed to implement a newly devised micro-plan.

It involves identifying the Covid-19 patients as the first step. If the patient is having comorbidity conditions, aged or showing moderately higher or severe symptoms, they will be referred to hospitals. Asymptomatic people with the infection will be either home quarantined or put to stay in COVID-19 care centres.

Each and every member in the family and those who came in close contact with the positive cases will be tested. Conducting intensive disinfection drives, door-to-door surveillance of fever or influenza-like-illness, fever camps and distribution of immunity boosters in a coordinated manner also form part of the revised strategy.