Hyderabad | Bengaluru:

Telangana and Karnataka health administrators swung into action on Tuesday announcing a slew of measures including putting several people under observation for symptoms of Covid-19, and setting aside thousands of hospital beds in isolation wards to deal with the epidemic.The two state governments as well as the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh have announced a state of high alertness after a technology worker from Bengaluru tested positive for the deadly virus on his arrival in Hyderabad about 10 days ago. The 24-year-old, whose identify is under wraps, is believed to have contracted the virus during meetings in Dubai with engineers from Hong Kong .The health administrators have identified his fellow passengers who flew down from Dubai, his flat-mate in Bengaluru, family members, close colleagues at the tech firm and people who travelled by bus to Hyderabad with him.Telangana officials reached out to 85 persons who were suspected to have come in contact with him. Of this, 45 persons were already admitted in state-run Gandhi Hospital to be kept in isolation ward for two weeks and the rest are being brought for tests and isolation if needed, according to Telangana health minister Etela Rajender. The government, he said, has set aside Rs 100 crore for emergency spending.In Bengaluru, Karnataka health minister B Sriramulu and medical education minister K Sudhakar reviewed the preparedness, and said the government has reserved 630 beds in isolation wards in all government hospitals and 1,689 beds in private hospitals to avoid last-minute scramble. As of now, officials are using only the isolation ward at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases in Bengaluru. In Telangana, the health department has notified five hospitals and 3,000 beds.“The bus in which the infected person travelled from Bengaluru to Hyderabad had 23 passengers. We are contacting those who have returned to Bengaluru and the government of Telangana is talking to those who have stayed back in their state,” Sriramulu said.The government said 25 colleagues of the infected techie at the Bengaluru IT firm have been kept under constant observation in their respective homes. Their office has asked them to work from home, officials said.