55 fresh cases of COVID-19 in Telangana

: COVID-19 cases continued to surge in Telangana, with 55 more being reported on Saturday, taking the number of people found positive for the virus in the state to 1,509.

No fresh death was reported and the number of virus- related deaths continued to be 34, a health department bulletin said.

Twelve people were discharged from hospitals on Saturday, it said.

The rise in cases has been mainly in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) where there has been no let-up in freshcases for many days now.

On Saturday, 44 out of the 55 cases were from the GHMC, while eight were of migrants who arrived in the state in the last few days, the bulletin said.

In the remaining three cases, two were from Sangareddy district and one from Ranga Reddy district, both neighbouring Hyderabad.

Observing that the state government was taking all steps to keep the spread of virus fully under control, Health Minister E Rajender said the rise in cases over a period of time was due to many people in single families getting infected.

Rajender, who interacted with nodal officers in areas where a high number of cases were reported, said the government was providing treatment to all patients as per the guidelines of ICMR, according to an official release.

The number of people cured/discharged till date was 971, while those under treatment (active cases) as on date stood at 504.

Meanwhile, as part of the repatriation exercise to airlift stranded Indians abroad under the Vande Bharat Mission, an Air India flight from Newark (USA) via Delhi landed at Hyderabad International Airport on Saturday with 121 passengers.