Kakinada: Collector D Muralidhar Reddy orders to book cases on people not wearing masks

Kakinada: District Collector D Muralidhar Reddy said that in the wake of the rising number of Covid-19 cases, everyone in the district should wear a mask. He directed officialsto register cases against persons not wearing mask and impose fines.

He convened a district-level task force committee meeting along with joint collector Keerthi Chekuri and DMHO Dr KVS Gowreswar Rao on the prevention of Covid-19 at Collectorate here on Wednesday. He directed the officials to intensify the ongoing vaccination programme along with testing, contact tracing and isolation measures in view of the rising Covid-19 positive cases in the district.

He instructed the Task Force Committees to conduct vaccine distribution under the supervision of a medical officer on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays in four village secretariats under each Primary Health Centre (PHC) along with the 236 vaccination centres currently operating under the third phase of vaccination. He instructed the authorities that vaccination should be started in the secretariats on a trial basis in Kakinada Rural and Rajahmundry Rural on March 25.

He said that the special drive is expected to take place first, especially in villages where cases are being registered. He directed the authorities to conduct special programmes across the district for 15 days from March 24 to April 7 to create awareness among the people.The collector said that there are currently 489 active cases in the district, of which only 33 required hospital treatment while the rest were kept under home isolation.He said that while positive cases were registered in 42 mandals of the district, most of the cases were reported in Kakinada urban, rural, Rajahmundry urban and rural areas. He suggested that in most cases there were people from outside the area.

So, if any migrants visiting the villages should be identified and Covid tests should be conducted. If necessary, they should be kept in the quarantine. He also asked the officials to check for the primary and secondary contacts of such persons. "We are maintaining a special ambulance in each division for Covid-19 cases. We will reopen Covid special units at Government General Hospital, Kakinada, District Hospital in Rajamahendravaram and Amalapuram KIMS Hospital," he said. He said that there are 738 beds and 156 ICU beds available in the district for the treatment of Covid-19 patients. Joint collector Keerthi Chekuri, Additional SP K Kumar, DRO Ch Sattibabu, DMHO KVS Gowreswar Rao and others were present.