One person spreads coronavirus to 24 in Vijayawada

Vijayawada: The negligence of one person, who did not follow the social distance and also did not honour the lockdown procedure, spread the coronavirus to 24 persons in Krishnalanka in the city, sounding alarm bells throughout the city.

The person who was not identified by the officials arranged a gambling den at his place resulting in 24 persons testing positive. Likewise, women and children in Karmikanagar played Housie game in their house which resulted in spread of the virus in the area.

Minister for Endowments Velampalli Srinivas, who visited on Saturday the areas of Krishnalanka and Karmika Nagar which were announced as Red Zone areas on Friday, instructed the officials not to spare anyone who did not follow the lockdown procedure particularly in the Red Zone areas.

The Minister deplored the fact that lackadaisical attitude of some persons resulted in misery to so many people of Karmika Nagar and Krishnalanka in the city.

Later, the Minister conducted a review meeting with Malladi Vishnu, chairman of Brahmin Welfare Corporation, District Collector AMd Imtiaz, Commissioner of Police Dwaraka Tirumala Rao, Municipal Commissioner Prasanna Venkatesh and Joint Collector Dr K Madhavilatha at the Collector's camp office.

The Minister expressed satisfaction over the arrangements at Rythu Bazaars in the city and in providing vegetables in the Red Zone areas. He said that the essential commodities were being supplied through 105 Rythu Bazaars and 25 mobile vans. He appealed to the Municipal Commissioner to increase the supply of essential commodities in the city. Every Red Zone area should be covered by at least 3 mobile vans, he said.

Malladi Vishnu said that the people were gathering in huge numbers for essential commodities and it would be better if essential commodities were supplied to the people in the slums.

Municipal Commissioner Prasanna Venkatesh said that dal, cooking oil, black gram and other commodities, which would last one month, worth Rs 1,000 would be supplied to the people out of the money provided by the government. This facility is being extended to 14,000 families in the Red Zone areas in the city.

Commissioner of Police Dwaraka Tirumala Rao warned that the coronavirus would wreak havoc in the city if the citizens did not follow the lockdown scrupulously. Referring to the cases reported in Krishnalanka, Karmika Nagar and Khuddus Nagar, he said that people did not observe physical distance in these areas. He said that the people would be warned time and again with the help of drones, CC cameras and continuous announcement through public address systems. He warned of stringent action against the violators of lockdown.

Malladi Vishnu said that necessary medical facilities should be provided to dialysis patients and others. He said that the ESI Hospital authorities were referring the cases to Guntur General Hospital.

In response, the district collector said that dialysis patients would be provided facilities in private hospitals. Another dialysis facility would be started at government dental hospital soon, he said.

Minister Velampalli thanked the Muslim community for cooperating with the administration in observing the holy month of Ramzan at their homes. He said that the government on Monday would release Rs 5,000 to Masjids.

Sub-Collector H M Dhayan Chandra, Additional Municipal Commissioner A Mohan Rao and Joint Collector-2 Mohan Kumar were present.