Hyderabad,  The Telangana High Court on Wednesday directed the state government to increase the number of Covid-19 tests in view of the surge in the number of daily cases.

Amid the growing number of daily count in Telangana and some other parts of the country, the court asked the state health authorities to remain alert.

A division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili, which took up the hearing of matters relating to Covid-19 pandemic, also directed the government to pay within 15 days compensation to the families of those who died of Covid. It asked the authorities to expedite the process of compensation payment.

The court directed the state Health Department to submit a report on the action taken and adjourned the hearing to June 22.

The Centre has already asked Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu to take the necessary steps in view of the increase in the number of cases. These states have been advised to follow a five-fold strategy i.e test - track - treat - vaccination and also follow Covid-19 appropriate behaviour, monitoring clusters of new Covid-19 cases and adequate testing as per the guidelines

The number of Covid cases in Telangana has increased by 36 per cent during the last one week.

On June 7, the health authorities in the state reported 119 new cases against 65 cases reported a day earlier. They tested a total of 13,149 samples. Hyderabad accounted for 79 cases, a big jump from 32 reported a day earlier.

The number of active cases stands at 658 on June 7. This number was 481 on June 1.