The district on Thursday recorded 175 coronavirus positive cases, taking the total to 88,799 including 861 casualties, which is the highest in the State. For the first time since January, Madanapalle mandal witnessed 12 cases and Tirupati rural and urban combined 69 cases.
Speaking to the media here, Collector M. Hari Narayanan said that a 15-day awareness campaign on wearing masks had been undertaken across the disrict, involving the revenue, police, medical and paramedical staff.
He appealed to the people to wear mask without fail while venturing out to check the spread of the virus. He further urged them to accrod a top priority to vaccination among the target group of those above 60 years of age, and between 45 and 60 with co-morbid conditions.
“Chittoor district is now in the third place in the State in vaccination drive. We have set up more than 100 vaccination centers with spot registration facility,” said the Collector.
He said that the district officials were equipped with a standby stock of 3.35 lakh doses of vaccines. “There is no shortage of the doses,” he said.
Responding to the growing number of cases since a month, Mr. Hari Narayanan said that isolation facilities would be in place for those aged above 50 with co-morbidities at SVRR and SVIMS Hospitals in Tirupati.
More booths for byelection
The Collector said that the Tirupati Lok Sabha by-election would be conducted in full adherence to the COVID-19 guidelines. “Wherever the voters’ strength is above 1,000, additional booths would be set up after to the notice of the Election Commission. The first level check of the EVMs and VV Pats has been completed,” he said.
