There will be no relaxation in the lockdown in Anantapur district till April 25 and a decision on whether there should be any relaxation until May 3 will be taken on Saturday by the District Task Force comprising the BC Welfare Minister, the District Collector, and the Superintendent of Police.
At a joint press conference on COVID-19 operations in the district, District Collector Gandham Chandrudu said that District Industries Centre(DIC) general manager has been asked to survey and enlist the readiness of the industries, which were permitted to resume operations from April 20 by the Central government. But as of now, no activity is allowed.
On Monday, however, packing, loading and sale of sweet lime began at the Agriculture Market Yard on a big scale and a few farmers were seen taking out their bullock carts to ferry agricultural goods and their rabi crop produce from the farms to their storage spaces.
“The implementation of the lockdown guidelines will be stricter till April 25 in view of more number of positive cases getting reported regularly from the district,” said Mr. Chandrudu.
Rapid testing
With the augmentation of the testing capacity in the district, the number of tests was increased to slightly above 300 a day, but it was not sufficient, said the Collector. In all 7,000 rapid testing kits, purchased from Korea, will arrive in the city on Tuesday, and a plan has been drawn to conduct tests in select zones within three or four days.
Training was being given to paramedical staff on IGG and IGM kits for testing anti-bodies, he said. Despite the steep rise in the number of tests being per day all over the State, we were conducting less than 5 tests per 1,000 population, he observed.
Superintendent of Police B. Satya Yesu Babu expressed dismay at some people still roaming on streets on motorbikes and four-wheelers despite several warnings from the police and district administration.
The police had seized 400 bikes on a single day at Hindupur and some in Anantapur city, as they were moving around without any purpose.
