Telangana Government orders Shutdown

Telangana News: The Telangana government has finally sounded coronavirus siren. Taking a cue from many other states, the government on Saturday decided to shut down all educational institutions, function halls, cinema halls, pubs, etc, till March 31 as a precautionary measure to check the pandemic.

The government has also decided to adjourn the Assembly sine die on Monday.

Several states, including Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh, have already shut down schools, universities, shopping malls and cinema halls amid COVID-19 outbreak.

Earlier in the day, West Bengal also announced that it will shut down all educational institutions from March 16-31 as virus-confirmed cases continue to rise in the country.

Officials said the shutdown would not apply to both major and smaller shopping malls, supermarkets, vegetable and kirana shops. However, the city witnessed some panic buying on Saturday.

While educational institutions will be shut in Telangana till March 31, board exams such as ongoing Intermediate and SSC exams, would be held as per the schedule with government planning to take necessary precautions to avoid spread of coronavirus.

Following directions from the Centre, which had declared a national health emergency on Saturday, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao held a high-level meeting with Health Minister Eatala Rajender, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, DGP M Mahender Reddy and other senior officials.

Soon after that the Chief Minister convened an emergency meeting of the state Cabinet to review the situation and measures to be taken to prevent the spread of the virus.

The government feels that the next 15 days would be crucial and hence necessary precautions should be taken to ensure that the state does not slip in preventive measures in any manner.

It also discussed the possibility of having isolation wards in major districts of the state and whether they have the necessary facilities to maintain proper sanitation and medical staff to take care of suspected patients.

A command control centre has been set up at the office of Director of Medical Health. So far, the authorities had treated only the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport as the entry point and have been scanning people coming from abroad.

But since the two positive cases of a techie and Mohammad Siddique who came to Hyderabad by road from Karnataka, it has now decided to keep strict vigil at bus stations and railway stations as well.

Meanwhile, the Health minister appealed to the people to cooperate and provide information about the suspected COVID 19 cases to health authorities. The government also appealed to the people not to have big gatherings at functions and ceremonies like marriages.

The government also decided to put on hold all the official programmes being organised in the districts mainly the meetings with farmers and women self-help groups for the distribution of benefits under various schemes this month end.