Telangana government has placed order for five lakh Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) and another five lakh N95 masks for healthcare workers in government hospitals who are in the forefront in combating coronavirus.

For our comprehensive coverage and latest updates on COVID-19 click here.

The Health Minister told reporters on April 8 that the Chief Minister personally spoke to distributors and manufacturers of medical equipment across India during the last two days and placed procurement orders. "We are also procuring two crore surgical masks and one crore medical gloves for government doctors and nurses," he said.

The minister said orders for 3.5 lakh coronavirus testing kits and five lakh special safety eye-glasses were also placed. He said the state currently has a stock of 80,000 PPE kits, one lakh N95 masks and 20 lakh medical gloves. The minister said all persons from Telangana who participated in Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Delhi last month, and those related to the returnees were traced.

Nearly 1,100 persons from the state attended the Delhi meet. Their family members and acquaintances are under quarantine and have undergone diagnostic tests. "We have identified 3,158 persons including those who came back from Delhi and their close contacts. The swab samples have been collected from all of them and the last batch of 538 samples will be processed in another 24 hours to 48 hours," he said.

Those from Markaz cluster who have tested positive are admitted to government-run Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad while those who are asymptomatic are under quarantine in 167 centres in districts.