Stringent containment measures were initiated along with restrictions on movement of vehicles on the streets in Anantapur city from Wednesday as the number of COVID-19 positive cases were rising sharply for the past 10 days taking the cumulative total close to 1,900.
Police personnel barricaded the main thoroughfares, and 25 areas ‘Containment Zones’ in the city were out of bounds for ‘outsiders’ and traffic came to a standstill with traffic jams seen everywhere. Two major flyovers in the city were closed for traffic and social distancing went for a toss at every four-road junction with tens of people trying their best to make use of the relaxation from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Of the 115 containment zones, 110 are in Anantapur city, said District Forest Officer R. Jagannnath Singh, who is the Nodal Officer for Containment operations. Each of the 25 identified containment zones in the city were barricaded and police deployed along with a nodal officer for the zone to take care of the needs of the people there so that they do not come out or others do not enter that locality.
Hotspot
Anantapur city has turned into a ‘hotspot’ for the positive cases and 1,689 cases are of Anantapur district origin and the remaining are from other States or foreign countries with 35 deaths recorded so far. With 30 persons discharged on Wednesday, about 600 active cases were there in the district with more than 300 of them being treated in hospitals. Most of the others have been lodged in the four COVID Care Centres created in the district and a small number of people with mild symptoms opted for treatment in home isolation.
