E-Paper
Two Andhra districts with zero Covid-19 cases are setting an example
These two districts are considered to be the most backward in the state and yet they are untouched by coronavirus
Every district in Andhra Pradesh has recorded Covid-19 positive cases in double digits except for the two north-costal districts of Srikakulam and Vizianagaram bordering Odisha and Chhattisgarh respectively that have so far managed to give the deadly virus a slip.
Till Saturday, not a single coronavirus case was reported from these two districts, which are also very close to Visakhapatnam, the proposed administrative capital of the state, which has seen 24 positive cases to date.
A strike rate of zero in these two districts, considered to be the most backward in the state, have surprised the authorities who are struggling to deal with the ever-increasing number of Covid-19 cases elsewhere in the state.
Andhra has reported 405 cases till Saturday night, including 82 in Kurnool followed by 75 in Guntur, 48 in Nellore, 41 in Prakasam and 35 in Krishna. All the other districts have also crossed the double-digit mark.
“It is a pleasant surprise to witness Srikakulam and Vizianagaram reporting zero positive cases for Covid-19. Apparently, both the districts were alerted much earlier than the other districts and have been able to contain the spread of the disease,” state health and family welfare commissioner Katamaneni Bhaskar said.
The Tablighi Jamaat congregation held in Nizamuddin, New Delhi, which had resulted in a sharp rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in many parts of the country, had a severe impact on entire Andhra Pradesh, but not in Srikakulam and Vizianagaram.
“We, too, have traced 27 people connected with the Jamaat directly and indirectly, and all of them had been kept in isolation. Similarly, there were 1,445 people who had returned from abroad and another 4,271 people who had been in direct contact with them. Only four of them had some symptoms but none of them tested positive. Now, everybody is in quarantine,” Srikakulam district medical and health officer (DMHO) Dr M Chenchaiah said.
He attributed the zero positive cases in the district to the early intervention by the district authorities, including the police and the medical department staff. “We have taken up surveillance activities much earlier than any other part of the state. We ensured that none of the foreign returnees and their contacts came out of their homes by pasting posters on the gates and alerted their neighbours to inform the cops if anybody came out,” Chenchaiah said.
The district authorities also enforced the lockdown strictly and arrested people who deliberately violated the restrictions. “Fortunately, the awareness levels in the district are very high and they are fully cooperating with the authorities. Our medical and police surveillance teams are conducting door to door surveys to see that there is not a single suspect,” he said.
The DMHO said the authorities were vigilant over the reports that there was a possibility of some suspects from Nellore, Guntur and Visakhapatnam entering Srikakulam. “We are sending any suspicious case to the isolation centre,” he said.
Vizianagaram DMHO S V Ramana Kumari said swift and prompt action was taken by the district authorities to quarantine 434 foreign returnees and for the monitoring of their health.
She, however, added that luckily, there was not a single case of Tablighi Jamaat returnees in the district. “That perhaps saved us. We have no problem from other people, who are fully cooperating with us in the quarantine centres and none of them tested positive,” she said.
