Hyderabad: After Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) on Sunday permitted private hospitals to test and treat the COVID-19 cases, the state government has announced a detailed list of prices for the same. Telangana Health Minister Etela Rajender gave out details of the treatment costs during a meeting he held with the health and medical authorities here on Monday.

The Telangana government has fixed the cost of COVID-19 tests at Rs. 2,200. Treatment cost without ventilator will be Rs 7,000 per day and it would be Rs 9,000 per day, if treated on a ventilator. The state government fixed the cost for isolation in private hospitals as Rs 4,500 per day.

Rajender asserted that the state government has been conducting tests in Telangana as per the guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

He even announced that the state government had granted permission for COVID-19 tests in private laboratories.

The minister said that all hospitals have been instructed by the authorities to perform tests only on those who have COVID-19 symptoms.

Rajender said that Telangana was the first to impose lockdown before all other states and that the virus was spreading in the state despite the government's proactive measures.

Coronavirus positive cases are increasing in Hyderabad and other districts of the state especially post relaxations in lockdown restrictions, he added.

CM KCR had taken the decision to permit tests in private hospitals so that testing of samples could be stepped up to effectively contain the spread of COVID-19 in the state.

The Chief Minister has also directed the officials to conduct COVID-19 tests on 50,000 people in 30 Assembly constituencies in five districts in and around Hyderabad within the next 10 days.