Hyderabad: A game of 'ashta chamma' (an ancient game like Ludo) proved to be life-threatening for at least 31 residents of Telangana's Suryapet district after they came in contact with a coronavirus positive woman who visited several houses to 'kill her time during lockdown'.

According to sources, the woman was in touch with a Tablighi Jamaat attendee, and is likely to have contracted the virus from the infected person. Officials collected samples of all people who came in contact with the woman and that led to 31 testing positive.

The incident came to light on Wednesday during the visit of Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, Director General of Police (DGP Mahender Reddy and Special Chief Secretary for health Shanti Kumari, who also expressed shock at the situation.

The total number of positive cases in Suryapet district have now reached 83, next only to Greater Hyderabad.

With 15 new cases in Telangana, the total number of positive cases has increased to 943, 194 have been discharged, 23 deaths have been reported and 663 are active and treating in different designated hospital in the state.

According to the sources, the Chief Secretary told the CM that due to lack of coordination among the officials’ led to the spread of the virus and the CM expressed his anger on the officials of the more affected areas.

A source further stated that they failed to perform door-to-door survey in the affected areas. Recently, the government transferred a few police and medical staff in connection with the coordination issue.

Further, the Chief Minister told the officials to collect the list of contact persons and do the necessary tests immediately. He also instructed to strengthen the measures in the containment area and not to allow anyone inside the zones.