Tirupati city has 35 Covid-19 containment clusters

Tirupati: The total relaxation of lockdown restrictions has been witnessing huge surge in Covid-19 cases in Chittoor district, which led to the declaration of more containment zones. There were 286 positive cases in the district from March to May 31. However, by June 21, the figure has skyrocketed to 899 cases which indicates that within 20 days the cases have increased by more than three times and officials are expecting that this trend may take the tally to somewhere between 2500 - 3000 by month end.

The lockdown has helped the officials to implement containment steps more effectively. At that time most of the cases were returnees from Tabligi Jamaat, Koyambedu market, Ajmer and other neighbouring states and their primary and secondary contacts. Several mandals had no cases or confined to a few cases at that time except Srikalahasti which became a hotspot by then itself.

As a result, Srikalahasti had more containment zones during the lockdown stage. At one stage, entire town was made a containment area to control the spread of the virus. During that stage the neigbouring city Tirupati has two or three containment zones only. Once lockdown is lifted, the situation went out of gear and there was a huge spread of the virus due to various reasons.

Though Tirupati city had cases only in single digit almost till May end, it occupies first place in the district now with about 150 cases followed by Srikalahasti with 130 cases. With this, out of 50 divisions in the district, nearly 35 wards have containment clusters now whereas Srikalahasti has 13 containment cluster areas. District headquarters Chittoor is having 15 clusters as against only one cluster in Madanapalle. In all 49 mandals out of 66 have containment clusters though the number varies from one cluster to as many as 35 clusters (Tirupati) depending on the number of cases.

Significantly, the limits of containment zone were reduced now to 500 meters in the radius of reporting of any positive case.

Otherwise, several places in the district would have gone into total red zones for which Tirupati is one example. Several doctors and officials were expecting that the situation in the pilgrim city would go out of control if the same trend continues. There was a opinion that another lockdown in the city may become a must very soon. Also, the attitude of the people should also be changed and everyone should invariably wear a mask and follow physical distancing.