COVID-19 situation under control in Telangana: Guv

The Telangana government is doing its best to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus and the situation is under control, Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan has said.

She also said that the "positive cases' curve has almost started flattening in the last few days" in the state.

Telangana has reported 1,002 COVID-19 cases so far, with 280 persons cured or discharged. The death toll in the state is 26, according to Union Health Ministry data.

In three of the 33 districts in the state, there has been no new cases in the last few days, the governor, who is a doctor, told PTI over phone on Sunday.

"Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's government is doing its best to contain the disease. The spread of the infection is under control and the positive cases' curve has almost started flattening in the last few days," Soundararajan said.

The government had deputed some secretary-level Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers as in-charges to supervise actions to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the three districts when more cases were being reported, she said.

"The chief secretary and the IAS officers took a helicopter journey to Suryapet and some other districts to personally monitor the control measures, Soundararajan said.

The governor thanked the Centre for helping and cooperating with the state government in its fight against COVID-19.

On Thursday, a mobile virology research and diagnostics laboratory, a testing facility developed by the DRDO, was launched by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh through video conference in Hyderabad, she said.

The ESI facility in Hyderabad will work with state authorities in the project and the mobile lab can test 1,000 samples in a day, Soundararajan said.

On adopting plasma treatment for COVID-19 patients, she said experts state that first sufficient anti-bodies should have been formed in cured patients.

Plasma treatment is given by taking blood plasma from a cured COVID-19 patient to treat positive cases to effectively strengthen the immune system.

Only if adequate anti-bodies are formed it will be effective for treatment. In our Indian set up it is difficult for the formation of adequate anti-bodies they say, the governor added.