In a first, the Telangana government on Tuesday released a detailed COVID-19 bulletin which listed all 92 active containment zones in Hyderabad, under the jurisdiction of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). The detailed bulletin comes after the state government drew flak from all quarters, including the High Court, over its lack of transparency in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
The GHMC's Charminar zone, which includes large parts of the old city, has the highest number of containment zones at 31. This was followed by Secunderabad zone with 23 zones, Khairatabad zone with 14, Serilingampally zone with 10, Kukatpally zone with nine and LB Nagar zone with five.
In the Charminar zone, Malakpet circle, which was considered one of the biggest hotspots in the city in May, has six containment zones. Chandrayangutta circle has the highest number of containment zones at nine, followed by Santoshnagar and Falaknuma with five each, Rajendranagar (4) and Charminar (2).
Here is the full list of active containment zones in Hyderabad.
While the state did publish a list of all containment zones, it did not take any extra efforts to give a breakdown or any further details about the same.
In its bulletin released on Tuesday morning, the Telangana government said that as of 8 pm on Monday, 1,610 new COVID-19 cases were reported, out of which 531 were from the GHMC area.
The state's total COVID-19 tally stands at 57,142. Of this, 13,753 patients are currently undergoing treatment. Nine deaths were reported on Monday, taking the state's death toll to 480.
The state has tested 3,79,081 samples so far, of which 15,839 were tested in a 24-hour period ending on Monday evening.
Meanwhile, with towns like Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Warangal, Nalgonda and Khammam witnessing a surge in infections in recent days, the health department is redrawing its strategy to contain the spread of the virus.
Unlike in June, when a large percentage of new cases were being reported from the GHMC area, the cases are now being recorded from all districts. Officials attribute this to the increased movement of people from GHMC to other districts in the current unlock period.
Hinting at the possibility of a community spread, Director of Public Health G Srinivas Rao last week urged people to be extremely careful for the next few weeks.
"COVID-19 has entered into the community. It is hard to trace where and how the virus comes from and there is no other way but to take precautions," he had told reporters.
IANS inputs