Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Sunday said that his state may come out of the Coronavirus pandemic by the end of April first week, provided there are no fresh cases with symptoms of the disease.

Speaking to reporters at Pragati Bhavan after a video-conference with district officials, KCR said all 25,937 people who had been quarantined and were under surveillance by the state medical and health department authorities would be completing their 14-day quarantine period by 7 April.

“Starting with 1,899 people on Monday, these people would be declared safe in a phased manner every day and by 7 April, all of them would be cleared of Covid-19. These quarantined people include foreign returnees, their relatives and close contacts, who had been identified and kept in isolation,” he said.

A 74-year-old man from Hyderabad became the first person to die of coronavirus in the state. The man, who recently returned from New Delhi, died at a private hospital but later examination of his body showed that he was positive for COVID-19, Health Minister Etela Rajender said at a news conference on Saturday.

Telangana on Sunday reported three new COVID-19 positive cases, taking the total to 70 while 11 of them will be discharged from hospitals after treatment on Monday.

Rao told a news conference that 11 patients were tested negative for Coronavirus in the final screening. “They are fine and will be discharged from hospitals tomorrow,” he said.

The first positive case was reported on March 2 and he was discharged on March 13. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday spoke to the man and the latter told him that he was looked after well in Gandhi Hospital.

With the discharge of 11 persons on Monday, 58 would remain under treatment in hospitals.

Rao said the number of people under surveillance stands at 26,937, but if no new suspected case is reported this number would become zero on April 7 as all of them would be completing their 14-day quarantine period.

The Chief Minister said with no arrivals from abroad, restrictions and lockdown, there were fewer chances of new cases.