Telangana removes lockdown from Sunday, CM says Covid cases have reduced significantly

The Telangana government on Saturday announced that the coronavirus-induced lockdown in the state will be completely removed on Sunday. The chief minister’s office said that the decision was taken after examining medical reports submitted by the authorities, which showed daily infections and positivity rate decreasing significantly.

“The Cabinet has ordered officials of all branches to lift all types of regulations imposed during the lockdown in full extent,” the chief minister’s office said in a Facebook post. “...The Cabinet has confirmed that corona has come into control faster than other states in the state of Telangana.”

Schools and other educational institutes in the state will reopen from July 1. The K Chandrashekar Rao government urged citizens to wear masks and follow physical distancing measures to not “damage” public life.

The state government had first imposed a lockdown from May 12 to 22, with a daily relaxation from 6 am to 10 am. However, the Cabinet later extended the lockdown for another week in a meeting convened on May 18. On May 30, the state again decided to extend the lockdown for another 10 days with a daily relaxation from 6 am to 1 pm. An additional grace hour was given to the residents to reach their homes by 2 pm. Lastly, it was once again extended till June 19.

On Friday, Telangana reported 1,417 new coronavirus cases, pushing the tally to 6,10,834 since the pandemic broke out in January 2020. The toll rose to 3,546 with 12 more fatalities. The recovery rate in Telangana was 96.3%.

Earlier on Saturday, All India Institute of Medical Sciences chief Randeep Guleria told NDTV that with crowds building up in several states, the “inevitable” third wave of infections could hit the country in the next six to eight weeks.

Many states like Maharashtra and Delhi, which were severely affected during the second wave of the pandemic, have also relaxed the restrictions.