VIJAYAWADA: A day after a 24-year-old from Vijayawada tested positive for COVID-19, the district administration on Sunday swung into action to identify three people who travelled in a cab hired by the infectee. A control room was set up and people were told to inform the police about anyone with symptoms of the disease.
Reports of the infected youngster, who returned from Paris a few days ago, created a scare among the locals, following which Krishna district Collector A Md Imtiyaz and City Police Commissioner Dwaraka Tirumala Rao took stock of the situation and said a high alert has been sounded in Vijayawada.
The infectee travelled from Hyderabad to Vijayawada in a cab, and later, three people used the same vehicle to go to Guntur. "We are appealing to them to approach a doctor," Tirumala Rao said. The Krishna district administration has alerted officials in Guntur, and the police there are trying to trace trio.
Section 144 of the CrPC, which prohibits assembly of groups of people, has been enforced in the city, the Commissioner of Police said, and appealed to the public to cooperate and refrain from gathering in large numbers. “If people do not voluntarily adhere to prohibitory orders, we will have no option but to use force,” he added.
Imtiyaz further said that the entire district has been put on alert and medical tests have been conducted on people who live in 500 houses near where the infectee resides.“We have also collected samples of the infectee’s relatives and those who came in contact with him,” the Collector said, adding that people within a three-km radius of the infectee’s house were asked to be alert.
Dial 7995244260 to contact the coronavirus control room in Krishna district
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