A high alert has been issued against possible spread of COVID-19 from Karnataka and Maharashtra in Kurnool and Anantapur districts, where several cases have been reported.
Roads and Buildings Minister M. Sankaranarayanan on Tuesday in Anantapur District Magistrate Nagalakshmi Selvarajan, Joint Collector A. Siri and DMHO Y. Had a review meeting with Kameshwar Prasad. The average positive cases in Anantapur district is either in single digits or not more than 15 per day, and Kurnool district has literally ‘0’ cases for most days of the month.
“These districts have a long border with Karnataka and entry of primary and secondary contacts of omicron positive persons is possible, hence people to be on high alert to follow all COVID-19 protocols like wearing masks and avoiding large gatherings should,” said the minister. He said that the people of the villages should be alert and inform the authorities about any new person coming from these states. Ms Nagalakshmi asked officials to enforce the protocol of wearing masks in public places and impose penalties to ensure compliance. “We need to be extremely vigilant about the potential spread of the Omicron variant,” she said. He said that testing of at least 5,000 samples in a day should be ensured and two doses of vaccination to all should be on priority.
Ms. Siri said that almost all the major villages have established COVID Care Centers and these need to be inspected for proper functioning of water, electricity and other facilities and it should be ready soon. Teams were formed and trained to run the centres. Now there is a need to start 104 call centers at the divisional level.
Kurnool landscape
Kurnool district recorded the entry of 267 people and an equal number of people in Anantapur district with recent foreign travel. Kurnool Collector P. “Efforts were on to trace and test them and they assessed the availability of oxygen cylinders, ICU beds and other facilities at various hospitals and PHCs in the district,” Koteswara Rao said at a review meeting in Kurnool on Tuesday.
He asked officials to prepare an action plan to deal with any possible third wave caused by the Omicron version.
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