District Collector V. Vinay Chand instructed officials to ramp up their focus on contact tracing and implementation of COVID-19 protocols in containment zones. The Collector held a video-conference with officials on COVID-19 duty in various areas, here on Wednesday.
“September is going to be a very crucial month in combating the pandemic. The city is witnessing a large number of COVID-19 cases on a daily basis,” Mr. Vinay Chand said, asking staff to demarcate an area of 200 metres as a containment zone once a COVID-19 case is reported, and to conduct a survey immediately afterwards.
“Ward secretariat staff should focus on tracing primary and secondary contacts. In the GVMC limits, contact tracing and containment zone mapping has been delayed,” he said. The Collector said that soon, mobile digital X-Ray units will be arranged in the district.
Home isolation
The Collector also asked the staff to give priority to people being treated under home quarantine. He asked them to take stock of their health situation on a regular basis and shift them to hospital immediately in case they suffer from respiratory issues.
Joint Collector Govinda Rao, Andhra Medical College Principal P.V Sudhakar and other officials attended the video-conference.
693 new cases
The district registered 693 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, taking the cumulative tally to 38,824. The death toll rose to 271, with six more persons succumbing to the virus in the last 24 hours.
The number of discharges was higher than the number of new cases, with 746 persons who were undergoing treatment for COVID-19 testing negative for the virus on Wednesday.
As per the COVID-19 bulletin released on Wednesday, the number of active cases in the district stands at 6,483 while the number of recoveries stands at 32,070.
The total number of clusters are 728. Among them, 49 are very active, 60 are active and 629 are dormant, while 171 clusters have been denotified, Dr. Sudhakar said.
