Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao has announced some more regulatory measures across the State in the wake of incident in Karimnagar when some preachers from Indonesia who interacted with people there tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday.
The Chief Minister, who held an emergency meeting with District Collectors and Superintendents of Police addressed a media conference at Pragathi Bhavan here on Thursday evening, said the Karimnagar incident made it imperative to put in more regulations.
He said of the 14 COVID-19 positive cases in Telangana so far, five of them landed at Shamshabad International Airport and rest came to the city by road and other means of transport from other parts of the country. The preachers who went to Ramagundam were now under the surveillance of doctors.
The District Collectors and SPs have been instructed to identify every one in their respective districts who came from abroad after March 1 and conduct medical tests and subject them to house quarantine under the supervision of DMHO at the district level. Village secretaries, mandal and municipal officers through Gram Sabhas would identify such persons and inform the medical and health officials. He also called upon people to report such persons who came from overseas after March 1 and persons who returned from foreign countries should voluntarily disclose such information and cooperate with the government.
The State shared borders with Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh and as people would enter the State through various means of transport, 18 check posts would be set up to identify those who came from overseas.
If strict measures were adopted by everyone, the State would be safe, he asserted and cited the example of Taiwan, neighbour of China which took strict measures and prevented the virus from spreading. On the other hand Italy and Iran were the worst affected as they were negligent.
He announced that cinema halls, function halls, bars, pubs, clubs, amusement parks, swimming pools, gyms, indoor and outdoor stadia, zoo parks and museum would remain closed till March 31. They were earlier closed for one week. All educational institutions and coaching centres, summer camps would remain closed till March 31. Permissions would not be given for public meetings, conferences, seminars, exhibitions, trade fairs and cultural events.
The Chief Minister, however, said SSC examinations being held at 2,500 centres would continue where 5 lakh students were appearing. The decision was taken to continue the exams as 90% of the students and parents were in favour but instructions were given to conduct the exams in a highly sanitised environment. At every SSC centre, tables would be thoroughly cleaned.
Malls, super markets and other shops would function normally but they should ensure that there would be no crowding. The situation would be reviewed next month.
No Srirama Navami feast
KCR said the best protection against virus was avoiding public gatherings and announced there would be no gathering for Panchanga Shravanam on March 25 and the event would only be through live telecast and Sriranma Navami celebrations too would stand cancelled. The Muslim religious leaders also agreed not to conduct the ‘Jag ne ki Raat’ on March 22 to avoid public gatherings.
He also said devotees should not be allowed in the places of worship of all religions and high sanitation measures be taken in public transport and even in places of worship.
