Hyderabad: It was in the third week of March, Karimnagar, with a population of around three lakh, woke up to the realisation that
coronavirus had struck the town. With 10 Indonesian preachers testing positive, alarm bells had started ringing.The group of 10
Indonesians had arrived on March 14 from Delhi aboard the AP Sampark Kranti Express. They visited four mosques in the town.
The next day, they went to the Intelligence Special Branch to register their presence.
By then, the fact that a IT professional who returned from Dubai had tested positive had caused consternation. “Since one of the Indonesians had shown signs of coronavirus, the SB personnel shifted them to the hospital,” Karimnagar police commissioner VB Kamalasan Reddy told TOI.
On March 16, the group was rushed to the Gandhi Hospital where, subsequently, all 10 of them tested positive along with four others who were in contact with them. As on April 7, there are seven active positive cases from Karimnagar alone. Police have also registered cases against the Indonesians for violating the Foreigners Act.
As many as 114 people are now under quarantine in hospitals and 625 under home quarantine in Karimnagar town. Interestingly, the man, who hosted the Indonesians, was not traceable but police caught him eventually and sent him for examination. He too tested positive. Two other contacts of the Indonesians had also tested positive.
With the Indonesians testing positive, the Telangana government informed the central government. The railways was alerted about the coaches in which the Indonesians had travelled and passengers were asked to report for a check-up. On March 21, the Union home ministry realised the gravity of the pandemic after Telangana reported cases from Karimnagar about the Indonesian group after they had attended the
Nizamuddin Markaz meet.
Stepping in, Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay of BJP urged all those associated with the Markaz event to submit themselves for a check-up.
Even before the
lockdown was announced, Mukarampura and three other places where the Indonesians had stayed were declared ‘red zones’ and barricaded. Municipal commissioner Valluru Kranthi made arrangements for door delivery of essentials to 4,000 houses. Medical tests were conducted twice for everyone in each household. She also said documentation was being done on how the crisis was being handled.
“Apart from monitoring by drones, we have fixed CCTV cameras in these areas so that no one comes out of their houses,” Kamalasan explained. Collector K Shashanka said all protocols were being followed to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the district.
Karimnagar town was upgraded to a municipal corporation in 2005.