Guntur district recorded 18 new cases till 11 a.m. on Thursday taking the total number of cases to 195, the second highest in the State after Kurnool. Special Officer B. Rajasekhar, District Collector I. Samuel Ananda Kumar and Joint Collector A.S. Dinesh Kumar took stock of the situation.
It has emerged that there has been a pattern of the coronavirus spreading from those who had tested positive to their primary and secondary contacts. Of the 195 cases identified so far, more than 110 are from Guntur city.
The spread of infection is rapid and concentrated in the areas where persons have been tested positive. Any delay in shifting the persons from their homes to quarantine centres could prove costly. The trend of those living in quarantine being tested positive is also rising creating anxiety in the district administration and with most of the cases being asymptomatic, the local administration is grappling with the spread of the virus.
District Collector I. Samuel Ananda Kumar said that 3,816 persons were shifted to quarantine centres. The district administration is making arrangements to provide 400 ICU beds and 227 ventilators to meet any emergency.
More hotspots
The cluster containment zones in Anandapet, Kummaribazaar, Butchiah Thota, and Srinivasarao Thota have emerged as hotspots with more cases emerging. The police have barricaded all entry and exit points in these regions.
According to the district administration, it will increase testing and random testing will be intensified in the red zones identified. More than 30,000 people are set to be tested in the red zones.
With the number of positive cases increasing day by day, the district administration has announced more measures aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19.
Superintendent of Police, Guntur Urban, P.H.D. Ramakrishna said that lockdown would be strictly implemented from Friday and vehicles could be seized if people were moving after 9 a.m. He also said that all entry and exit routes to Guntur were completely barricaded and sealed.
