Hyderabad, Apr 18 (IANS): Authorities in Telangana have asked medicine shops to take down the phone numbers and addresses of people buying medicines for fever and cough so that COVID-19 tests can be done on those with suspected symptoms.

All municipal commissioners and additional collectors were on Saturday directed to convene a meeting with all chemist shops' owners and instruct them to follow the advisory.

The lists of such persons would be forwarded to officials concerned for maintaining a directory.

Arvind Kumar, Principal Secretary, Municipal Administration and Urban Development, in his order issued on Saturday noted that due to some hesitation and perceived social stigma, people suffering from fever, cough and other symptoms similar to COVID-19 are approaching medical shops on their own to buy medicines.

He believes the move to keep track of those buying such medicines and conducting tests on suspected cases would go a long way in preventing the spread of the virus.

The government took this decision in view of the findings by health authorities that many of those tested positive for COVID-19 were asymptomatic.