After nearly 10 months, the health department in Telangana reverted to the earlier practice of issuing daily Covid media bulletin in the evening.
Director of public health and family welfare Dr G. Srinivasa Rao said the bulletin will be issued in the evening along the daily press briefing by him and director of medical education K. Ramesh Reddy.
After the pandemic broke out last year, the health authorities were issuing daily bulletins in the evening. However, towards July end they started issuing bulletins in the morning, giving comprehensive data of 24-hour period as directed by the Telangana High Court.
The evening bulletin will cover the 24-hour period from 5.30 p.m. the previous day.
According to first bulletin issued Friday as per the revised timing, the state reported 5,559 new Covid cases and 41 deaths.
The cumulative case tally has gone up to 4,87,199 while death toll mounted to 2,666.
The state continued to see more recoveries than the new cases. A total of 8,061 people recovered from the virus, taking the cumulative number to 4,13,225.
The recovery rate improved further to 84.81 per cent against the national average of 81.9 per cent. The number of active cases also came down to 71,308.
The authorities tested 65,375 samples during the 24-hour period. With this the state has so far conducted 1,34,88,498 tests. The samples tested per million population increased to 3,62,399.
The daily count of cases in Greater Hyderabad declined to below 1,000. The state capital reported 984 cases. Rangareddy and Medchal Malkajgiri adjoining Hyderabad reported 457 and 372 cases respectively.
Warangal Urban reported 296 cases followed by 208 in Nalgonda, 201 in Siddipet, 201 in Karimnagar and 200 in Khammam.
Srinivasa Rao hoped that the current wave of Covid pandemic is likely to subside in the next two to three weeks due to people's adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour and the government's containment efforts.
The government has extended the night curfew till May 15 and also imposed restrictions on gatherings.
The director of public health appealed to citizens not to let down their guard, postpone functions, avoid gatherings, wear double mask when outside and single inside homes.
