Chittoor district on Saturday registered eight new COVID-19 positive cases, all linked to Koyambedu market in Chennai.
Following sudden increase in the number of cases, DIG (Anantapur) Kanthi Rana Tata rushed to Chittoor district and inspected the red zones in the eastern mandals, Chittoor city and local railway station. Collector Narayana Bharat Gupta and Superintendent of Police S. Senthil Kumar joined the DIG in the inspections.
Addressing a review meeting with the district police officials, Mr. Tata urged the personnel on COVID-19 duty to do strategic identification of the cases who had visited the Koyambedu market, along with the secondary contacts.
Referring to the reports of seizure of illicit liquor in the district, and smuggling of liquor bottles to Tamil Nadu, the DIG directed the officials to mount vigil on the border areas.
He inquired about the status of migrant workers stranded in Chittoor district, and was informed that two Shramik trains had already left from Chittoor, carrying over 2,000 of them to Odisha and Bihar, while arrangements were under way for special trains to Uttar Pradesh and other northern states.
The police department had arranged shelter and food to over 500 migrant workers in Chittoor since March 25.
Mild tension prevailed at V. Kota mandal headquarters with a fresh case of COVID-19 with Koyambedu links on Saturday.
Several villages in and around V. Kota laid seize to their surroundings in a bid to prevent entry of strangers and people from neighbouring villages. V.Kota had registered the maximum number of Koyambedu-linked cases in the last one week — close to 20. It is estimated that over 15% of the vegetables reaching Koyambedu market was from this region.
Couple test positive
Meanwhile, uneasy atmosphere prevailed at Srikalahasti with a couple testing positive to the virus, who were among the 14 new cases identified on Friday.
The couple was related to a student from Guntur, who is currently under isolation, along with his family members. Srikalahasti temple town alone registered 60 positive cases during the last 40 days.
One person of Srikalahasti was discharged from SVIMS COVID Hospital at Tirupati on Saturday, after testing negative to the virus.
