No Covid deaths in past 20 days in Telangana:

Amid a global resurgence of Covid infections triggered by new variants of the coronavirus, Telangana is witnessing a sharp drop in active Covid infections and for the first time in the last two years, there have been no fatalities due to the virus over a prolonged period of time.

After a solitary Covid-related fatality on February 24, there have been no reports of deaths due to Covid in Telangana. This is for the first time that no fatalities have taken place at a stretch for over 20 days during the three Covid waves in the State.

Doctors attribute this to the waning influence of the Omicron variant, which has not been that virulent as against the Delta variant.

“Symptoms such as body pains, lethargy and fever due to the Omicron variant are very intense. The vital difference from the earlier Delta wave is the fact that



Omicron has not impacted lungs and oxygen levels of the body have remained steady, thus reducing the need for hospitalisation. As a result, people who tested positive for Omicron despite suffering due to symptoms, recovered at home,” Fever Hospital Superintendent Dr K Shankar said.

At present, the recovery rate for Telangana is 99.38 per cent, which means almost all persons who test positive for Covid are recovering in a week. The number of active cases has also dropped sharply from the highs of nearly 20,000 in January during the peak of the Omicron variant to around 750 in the second week of March.

On February 3, the Health Department reported three Covid-related fatalities, after which the trend of deaths has been downwards. The last fatality on February 24 took the cumulative number of deaths during the three waves to 4,111.