Amid mounting Covid cases, Telangana CM to review situation

Hyderabad, June 7 (IANS) With the surge in coronavirus cases continuing in Telangana, Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao has convened a meeting on Monday to review the situation.

The meeting to be attended by Health Minister E. Rajender and other senior officials will discuss the measures taken for the containment of Covid-19, implementation of the lockdown and other related issues.

The meeting is expected to take stock of the situation in the wake of the mounting number of Covid-19 cases and decide on the measures to be taken to check the spread of the virus.

Covid-19 cases in the state have been on the rise since the relaxations in the lockdown last month. Officials said increased movement of people following the relaxation in the lockdown norms led to the surge.

In the highest-ever single day jump, the state on Saturday reported 206 cases and 10 deaths. The state's tally of cases rose to 3,496 and the death toll to 123.

The Chief Minister has also convened another meeting to take a decision on the conduct of Class 10 examinations. Education Minister P. Sabita Indra Reddy and officials will participate in the meeting.

According to the Chief Minister's Office, the meeting will discuss at length all the issues pertaining to conduct of the examinations and take a decision accordingly.

Meanwhile, there are indications that the government may decide not to conduct the exams and instead give grading to students on the basis of their performance in the internal exams, as suggested by Telangana High Court during hearing of the case on Saturday.

The exams were scheduled to begin across the state from Monday. However, the high court on Saturday directed the government not to conduct the exams in Greater Hyderabad in view of the high incidence of Covid-19. It asked the government to separately conduct the exams in Greater Hyderabad at a later date.

The government late Saturday decided to postpone the exams, in view of the problems that may crop up due to conduct of separate exams in Greater Hyderabad.

Examinations for three papers were held in March before the high court intervened to direct the government to postpone the polls in view of Covid-19 situation.