Testing, tracing and treatment method to be intensified in five Andhra districts

The state government had earlier announced that the lockdown restrictions won't be eased in Chittoor, Prakasam, Krishna, East and West Godavari districts owing to their high Covid positivity rate.
People stand in a queue at a PHC in Tirupati on Monday for vaccination (Photo I EPS)K
People stand in a queue at a PHC in Tirupati on Monday for vaccination (Photo I EPS)K

VIJAYAWADA: In view of the State government’s decision to continue the existing curfew hours (from 6 pm to 6 am) in five districts — Chittoor, Prakasam, Krishna, East Godavari and West Godavari — for one more week from July 1, administrations of these districts have decided to intensify tracing, testing and treatment in the localities where the number of Covid cases is high. Out of the over 15,000 village/ward secretariats, only 690 have been found to be reporting more than 10 cases per day. A majority of the 690 secretariats are in the five districts.

Even after the enforcement of the curfew, Covid positivity rate has not come down in some mandals of Chittoor district. Recently, officials conducted a fever survey after the Delta plus variant was detected in Tirupati, and TUDA quarters, Tirumala Nagar and Bommala Colony were declared red zones.On June 1, Ministers Mekapati Goutham Reddy and Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy announced that the district would observe more curfew hours even as traders in places such as Madanapalle volunteered to shut down their shops by 2 pm itself. However, there was little impact on Covid spread. 

It is suspected that the district shares borders with Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, and public movement across these borders could have contributed to the higher positivity rate in the district. Taking these factors into account, the district administration has decided to step up vigil and implement ‘triple T’s’ in a vigorous manner.  

Prakasam is yet to see its positivity rate drop below five per cent. Taking stock of the situation, district collector Praveen Kumar said focus will now be more on migrant labourers from other districts and states going there to work in granite, construction, and transport industries. He asked the officials to conduct a special drive for conducting confirmatory tests on them.  The collector also instructed the officials to complete the vaccination of all people in the 45+ age group at the earliest. The health officials also plan to increase the daily testing capacity from the present 7,000 to 10,000.    

Similar measures will be taken in Krishna, East Godavari and West Godavari. According to Krishna DMHO M Suhasini, rural areas accounted for more cases. “Nuzvid division is reporting more number infections and our focus will be enhancing ‘3Ts’ there.” In East Godavari district, the positivity rate on Monday stood close to five per cent, but given the fact that the district has more caseload, active as well as cumulative, the curfew hours were not changed for it.  “The number of cases are on the decline and one of the three Covid care centres has been closed” said DMHO Dr D Muralidhar Reddy.

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