Vizag district sees a fall in fresh covid cases

Visakhapatnam: Effective implementation of the partial curfew, closure of meat shops on Sundays for the three consecutive weeks and issue of e-challans to violators seem to have yielded desired results.

From 2,000-plus daily cases in the month of May to 600-900 daily cases in the month of June, there is a drastic drop in the case load in the district.

The 24-hour-long cases showed 634 on June 4, while the count touched 693 the next day. After a long gap, the district recorded 189 coronavirus positive cases on Monday.

The dip in the daily caseload is attributed to multiple reasons. "One, the second wave is waning. Two, an intense surveillance mechanism is in place to control the spread of the pandemic. Three, improved testing," explains PS Surya Narayana, district medical and health officer (DMHO).

In order to control the spread of the virus in rural areas, district administration has increased its testing capacity. With the occupancy level decreasing in the Covid-designated hospitals, the focus now is on maintaining the flattened curve.

"In order to maintain the flattened curve and further bring it down, focused testing is in place. The target is to test 10,000 people a day for the Covid-19 and the exercise began on Monday," says P V Sudhakar, district Covid special officer and principal of Andhra Medical College.

As the Andhra Pradesh government extends the partial curfew till June 20, the district machinery is gearing up to bring down the positivity rate to below 5 per cent.