Hyderabad, The surge in COVID-19 cases continued with 975 people testing positive on Monday, pushing the state's toll to 15,394.

Health officials said the state also reported six deaths during the day, taking the toll to 253.

For the second day in a row, the number of cases came down marginally. On Sunday, 983 people had tested positive.

However, the positivity rate remained high. The number of tests on Monday was 2,648 against 3,227 on Sunday.

According to the director of public health and family welfare, the cumulative number of tests rose to 85,106.

As many as 410 people recovered during the day, taking the total number of recoveries to 5,582.

A total of 9,559 people are currently under treatment either at hospitals or at their homes.

Greater Hyderabad remained the worst-affected region accounting for 861 of the fresh cases. Rangareddy and Medchal districts bordering Hyderabad reported 60 cases. The remaining cases were reported from 13 districts.

The day saw Home Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali testing positive. He was admitted to a corporate hospital in Hyderabad. His condition is stated to be stable.

Deputy Speaker of Telangana Assembly T. Padma Rao also reported to have tested positive along with two children in his family. They were kept under home isolation.

Padma Rao is the fourth MLA from ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to test positive.

Also on Monday, a central team led by Joint Secretary, Union Ministry of Health, Medical and Family Welfare, Luv Agarwal, visited COVID-19 designated hospitals in Hyderabad and interacted with top officials.

The central team suggested to the state to focus on containment measures, increasing testing capacity, tracing and clinical management in the state. An action plan for the next two months should be formulated keeping in view the likely increase in the cases.

The team visited Gandhi Hospital and the newly created Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS) in Gachibowli.

The panel also visited the containment area of Dhobigalli in Domalaguda and took stock of the ground level situation.

Later the team met the Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar and other senior officers and held a detailed discussion on the steps to be taken to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The health department made a detailed presentation on the steps taken for COVID-19 management in the state. The team was briefed on the surveillance and containment measures, hospital preparedness, procurement of protection equipment and preventive measures.

The team was told that the state has a capacity of 17,081 beds. The government has recruited 4,489 additional staff to strengthen treatment. An amount of Rs 475.74 crores has been sanctioned towards strengthening medical infrastructure.

The central team shared their field visit experience of other states and expressed satisfaction particularly appreciated the hospital management in the state.