As the number of Covid-19 cases in Telangana rose to 47 with two more fresh cases reported on Friday, State Health Minister Etela Rajender said most of positive cases had travel history to various foreign countries while adding that the government will intensify its efforts to track and screen the foreign returnees staying in the city for corona virus.

The health minister who held a meeting with medical college representatives on Friday said “All of the cases reported in Telangana involved people who had come to the state from elsewhere, mostly from London, US, Dubai, Germany, Scotland, Netherlands. Fortunately, India is not much affected by coronavirus unlike most other countries, but we should not relax in our efforts to contain the virus.”

Stating that Telangana government had readied 10,000 beds for the corona positive cases, he said there had been no case of local people infected with corona virus. He asked the people to strictly follow the complete lockdown regulations and stay indoors which will strengthen the government’s efforts to curtail the spread of the virus.

There are at least 20,000 foreign returnees who are undergoing home quarantine in Telangana. Hyderabad alone is home to more than 10,000 foreign returnees. Several GHMC teams have been set up in the city to trace the foreign returnees and directed them to mandatorily follow the 14-day home quarantine protocol. Further, in a bid to ensure that foreign returnees in Telangana do not violate the quarantine period, the government officials have already started seizing their passports.