Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar has directed the district collectors to strictly enforce the lockdown in the districts following the instructions issued to them in letter and spirit to contain the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19).
The collectors should implement the government’s orders scrupulously and ensure that there was no movement of people except for accessing medical care during the total lockdown period between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m. daily. The norm that one person should be allowed on two-wheeler and two on four-wheelers should be strictly adhered to.
The Chief Secretary held a video conference with the district collectors on the measures taken for containment of the COVID-19 in the State on Monday evening. The government had set up control room with two senior IAS officers — Rahul Bojja and Anil Kumar — at the Secretariat for guiding the district administration from time to time. Similar control rooms would be set up at district-level soon while the collectors should make arrangements to set up two quarantine centres in each district.
The collectors should send daily reports on the situation to the control rooms while the government had developed an App for monitoring the quarantine activities in the districts. Steps should be taken to see that area-based teams were formed for taking up surveillance of home quarantined persons.
They had been directed to ensure availability of essential commodities like milk, vegetables, groceries and medicines during the lockdown period. Prices of these commodities should be monitored strictly so as not to give scope for people paying higher prices for procuring them.
The district collectors had been asked to ensure that inter-disciplinary teams visited the families of those who returned from foreign travel and also those who had volunteered for home quarantine as part of measures to encourage the community to follow the containment plan.
He wanted the district collectors to increase the number of paddy procurement centres to a maximum extent to avoid scope for mass gatherings. Farmers visiting these centres should be educated on maintaining social distance and proper care should be taken to maintain sanitation at these centres.
