Earlier in the week, the KCR government declared that it would ensure as many as 50,000 tests across Telangana's 30 Assembly segments in 10 days. Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy, among others, were included in the last.

About five days later, the State has made only pathetic progress. The Telangana High Court has observed that the numbers are "hopelessly low" and that the government is not meeting the target it had set for itself.

Commenting on a petition filed by a lawyer, the HC observed that only 1,251 samples were tested on June 16 and another 1,096 on June 17. The State should have conducted at least 5,000 tests per day.

Curiously, it didn't provide the numbers for June 18.

At this rate, when is Telangana going to fulfil its target? Only 761 tests per million have been conducted in the State. The figure for Andhra Pradesh is at least 10 times more.

Cases are on the rise, especially in the GHMC. On Thursday, as many as 352 tested positive. Telangana now has 6,027 cases. And 2,531 are active cases.