VISAKHAPATNAM: High alert was sounded in the port city of Visakhapatnam after the first positive case of COVID-19 reported in the city. As many as 114 special teams comprising health workers and volunteers are fanning Allipuram and its neighbourhood. They are conducting a door to door survey of 7800 houses in the area.
The city of destiny reported the first COVID-19 case when a 65-year-old man with travel to Saudi Arabia tested positive. A resident of Allipuram went to Hyderabad in February last week and from there went to Mecca and returned to Hyderabad before coming to Allipuram on March 14. He came to Vizag from Hyderabad by train.
On March 17, he developed a cold, cough and initially went to a nursing home, but the doctors there referred him to go to Government Chest Hospital. The doctors at the chest hospital, who after the initial diagnosis, admitted him to the isolation ward. His sample (throat swab) was collected and send for testing at VRDL at SVIMS in Tirupati. On March 19, his results came out positive.
Meanwhile, the GVMC and DMHO authorities swung into action and cordoned off to sanitize a one km radius of Allipuram by spraying disinfectants. Authorities are trying to track those who came in contact with him. Three members of his family were also shifted to the isolation ward as a precautionary measure. Their samples were also sent for testing to VRDL at SVIMS in Tirupati.
Similarly, health department officials also declared ZP-Colony Mangamur Road in Ongole, where the first positive case of COVID-19 in Prakasam district was reported on Thursday, as a high-risk zone and started conducting door to door survey in a radius of 3 km from the house of the person tested positive. His parents and sister were also admitted to the isolation ward at RIMS-Ongole.
The entire area has been cordoned off and door to door survey in the area, which is reported to have a high-density population was taken up. As many as 50 survey teams are engaged in the survey since Thursday.
A high-level medical team was dispatched from Vijayawada by State Nodal Officer for COVID-19 to Ongole to monitor the situation. From time to time fogging and spraying of disinfectants in the area have been taken up.
Meanwhile, a woman from the suburbs of Ongole town was admitted to the isolation ward at RIMS-Ongole with a complaint of fever and cold on Wednesday night. She had recently returned from the USA.