Suryapet coronavirus chart continues to throw surprises

Hyderabad: Suryapet, which recorded its first novel coronavirus case on April 1, continues to baffle administrators as far as the number of positive cases are concerned.
For instance, a person contracted coronavirus after spending 21 days in quarantine. In a peculiar case, a person who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat meeting in Delhi tested negative, whereas his wife had tested positive.In another case, a couple had not contracted the virus but their seven-year-old son tested positive.
The virus had also been contracted by 30 persons from essential services establishments like medical shop, kirana store and vegetable shop in the city market area. So far, officials have not been able to zero in on the source of the virus or how it spread in Suryapet town. Over 360 people visited both the medical shop and vegetable shop and a worker in the medical shop was infected.
District minister G Jagadish Reddy said though there have been no new cases in the district in the last couple of days, they have not let the guard down. “We averted a major disaster by shifting the vegetable market, just two days before the first case was reported. Since it is a congested area, the market has been relocated to five other areas,” he told STOI.
In Epur village, 14 persons had tested positive for coronavirus where a seven-year-old boy became the source of the disease, while his father and mother did not get the disease. His father had gone to Suryapet market area for payment of chit amount. From the same village, a woman who had a travel history to Lucknow for attending a training programme, had tested positive, while her husband was Covid-19 free.
Similarly, in Suryapet town, a woman had tested positive and her husband did not have symptoms. Sources in the health department said 11 persons, who took part in the Tablighi Jamaat meet in Delhi, were identified. All of them tested negative and subsequently the district administration came to know that two more persons from Suryapet had also attended the event and one of them tested positive.
Interestingly, the Tablighis and their primary contacts were placed under quarantine for 21 days and one of the participants had tested positive on the last day of their quarantine period when the officials conducted tests while releasing them.
Known as the ‘Gateway of Telangana,’ Suryapet, located on Hyderabad-Vijayawada national highway, saw a surge in the last 20 days with 83 positive cases, sending shivers down the spine of officials. Luckily, the district has not reported any fresh positive cases in the last couple of days. Standing next only to Hyderabad in terms of positive cases, it became a testing ground for officials. Five of the positive cases have been discharged after being quarantined.