Night curfew was ordered in Telangana till April 30 as Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao tested positive for Covid. It is suspected that he contracted the infection during a public meeting held on the eve of bypoll to Nagarjunasagar assembly constituency. Besides the Chief Minister, 60 others who attended the meeting tested positive.
Those who were infected include the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi's candidate Nomula Bhagat and his family, and several other political leaders.
An estimated 1 lakh people are said to have attended the meeting addressed by the Chief Minister at Halia on April 14, ahead of the bypoll held on April 17.
The Chief Minister had reported mild symptoms including fever and body ache, after which a rapid antigen test and then an RT-PCR test confirmed that he was Covid positive.
Mr Rao has been advised home isolation and his personal staff have been asked to undergo testing and quarantine.
Nalgonda district reported 440 cases on Monday and Halia alone reported 66 cases. Of the 175 tests conducted at Halia's Primary Healthcare Centre, 66 tested positive, the district medical and health officer has said.
Today, the government ordered night curfew in the state from 9 pm to 5 am, which will be in place till April 30.
"During the abovementioned period, all offices, firms, shops, establishments, restaurants etc. shall close at 8.00 PM except hospitals, diagnostic labs, pharmacies and those dealing with supply of essential services," the government order read.
The night curfew decision came a day after the Telangana High Court pulled up the state government, ordering that it must declare lockdown or curfew within 48 hours.
The court said it would do the needful if the government failed to carry out its orders.
The court had also said that strong action should be taken in case of huge public gatherings.
Declaring that reports given by health officials are not accurate, the High Court ordered them to submit full report on action taken by the government to contain the Covid spike in the state.
The state logged 5,926 fresh cases of coronavirus this morning -- the highest ever in 24 hours – pushing the total infection count to over 3.61 lakh. Eighteen more people died, taking the number of fatalities in the state to 1,856.
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