Over 300 medical professionals protested outside the Gandhi General Hospital in Telangana’s capital Hyderabad after relatives of dead coronavirus patient allegedly attacked a few junior doctors.
The doctors at the hospital refused to resume duties until their demands were met. The protests, which began on Tuesday night, continued till 3 am on Wednesday and doctors resumed the sit-in protest at 8 am. The state has 450 doctors for a population of more than 3 crores, of which 110 have been infected by Corona.
The KCR government has come under question for its continued refusal to engage private labs for testing, despite the approval of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and directions from the Telangana High Court. And the state’s decision to do away with the mandated quarantine for railway passengers arriving in Telangana hasn’t helped curb the scepticism.
The number of Corona patients in the state increased from 2,098 to 5,678 between May 27 to June 18, with number of deaths increasing from 137 on May 27 to 192 till today. Also, the mortality rate of Telangana (3.79) is much higher than Maharashtra (3.66), which is the worst affected state in the country.
The test positivity rate of COVID-19 on the second day of mass testing on Wednesday shot up to 24.5 per cent which is at par with Delhi, which is 25 percent. This is attributed to low rate of testing in the initial time of the outbreak of the pandemic, when Telangana tested just 200 samples per day. – the lowest among all the southern states.
The government also capped treatment cost at private hospitals. Treatment without ventilator in ICU room has been restricted at Rs 7,500 per day while treatment with ventilator in ICU has been restricted at Rs 9,000 per day. The cost per day for admission in the isolation ward in a private hospital has been restricted at Rs 4,000.
Telangana does not have a set of norms for domestic passengers. For international flyers, there is still a seven-day mandatory institutional quarantine.The state has 5,406 cases out of which 3,027 have recovered successfully and 191 people have lost there lives.
On Wednesday the state witnessed another rise in the number of COVID patients as 213 people were tested positive out of which 165 are from Hyderabad. The capital has emerged as the worst-hit city in the state.
