Chittoor lockdown extended till June 15

Tirupati: As there has been no downward trend in Covid cases in the district, the district task force committee on Saturday decided to extend the lockdown in the district up to June 15.

The present rules pertaining to the relaxation of four hours from 6 am to 10 am to facilitate people to buy essentials will continue. Though the partial lockdown was imposed on May 5, so far there has been no reduction in the number of Covid-19 cases and the daily count has been over 2,000 cases every day. It has also been noticed that the spread was more in rural areas.

After the task force meeting, Minister Gowtham Reddy announced that the police officials were told to enforce the lockdown restrictions strictly. Due to total lockdown in the neighbouring Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, people are coming to Chittoor district which was said to be the major reason for the surge in Covid cases.

To prevent this, vigil on the border check posts will be increased and people will be allowed into the district only on production of Covid negative certificates. He said the officials have taken all steps to overcome oxygen shortage, mobile testing and to provide best medical care to Covid patients.

District Collector Hari Narayanan said that Covid care centres have been increased from 10 to 24 in the district. For Covid testing, samples are being collected through 14 mobile vehicles. Testing capacity in labs has been increased to conduct 10,000 tests per day. He said the current positivity rate is 13.92 percent.