For the last three days, there has been a steep increase in the number of positive cases for Coronavirus in both the Telugu states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
While Telangana has reported as many as 11 deaths till date, Andhra Pradesh also recorded its first death on Friday. The number of positive cases went up sharply in the last two days.
In Andhra Pradesh, the number went up from 44 on April 1 to 180 on April 4 morning, while Telangana recorded a jump of cases from 82 on April 1 morning to 229 by April 3 night. As per the latest bulletin in AP, as many as 16 cases were reported since Friday night.
The steep increase in the number of cases in the Telugu states is believed to be due to Tablighi Jamaat event held in New Delhi in the second week of March, from where the participants spread to all parts of the country.
Out of the total of 161 positive cases were reported in the state till Friday morning, 140 cases were related to the Tablghi Jamaat incident. A total of 1085 people from AP attended the Tablighi Jamaat event, of which 946 were identified and their samples were collected for testing. Out of 881 samples tested, 108 samples detected positive.
About 626 members who came in contact with the Delhi meeting returnees were also tested and 32 among them were detected positive.
Now that the Telangana and AP governments have claimed that they had identified and quarantined all those who have returned from Tablighi Jamaat meeting and their contacts, one would expect that whatever cases that would be reported now would only be of those people.
So, in the next couple of days, both the states are expected to report a sharp rise in the number of Coronavirus positive cases. After that, they might witness a gradual decline in the number of positive cases and they might witness a stable figure from next week.
Of course, this estimation is subject to the condition that there was no community transmission from Jamaat members to others.
If the number of cases continue to rise even after next week, it does mean, the Coronavirus entered the third stage and it’s danger time for the Telugu states!