Strict enforcement of COVID-19 protocols and people’s cooperation have resulted in the Agency areas of the district remaining virus-free so far.
Eleven mandals in the Visakha Agency have adhered to the social distancing norms and prevented the entry of outsiders into their hamlets ever since imposition of the lockdown.
The district police, with the help of the Integrated Tribal Development Authority (ITDA), the Health Department and others, are enforcing the lockdown norms by setting up nine check-posts, three of them on the inter-State borders at Sileru, Araku and Munchingputtu to prevent entry of people from Odisha, East Godavari, Vizianagaram and other regions into the hamlets. The roads leading to the Agency area from the city too have been closed for vehicular traffic.
Awareness drive
According to the health officials, their teams, in coordination with ASHA workers, have played a crucial role in creating awareness about the pandemic among the tribal population.
A number of people with suspected symptoms have been sent to Paderu for COVID-19 test, and all of them have been tested negative for the virus.
Police personnel from Araku, Paderu and other areas have made announcements regarding social distancing and closure of weekly shandies even in the interior areas.
“Team work, coordination between the Health, ITDA and other departments, cooperation from tribal people have helped check the spread of COVID-19 in the Agency,” said Superintendent of Police (Rural) Attada Babujee.
“A number of hamlets have voluntarily set up barricades to prevent the entry of outsiders,” said Killo Surendra, member of the Andhra Pradesh Girijan Sangham.
“A number of businessmen from Narsipatnam and Chodavaram usually attend the weekly shandies and the closure of roads connecting the rural and Agency areas has been proved to be a good move,” he said.
The challenge ahead
However, officials face a major challenge as nearly 1,500 persons from various States have reached the district. “Many tribal people working in other districts are returning to their native places in the Agency on foot through the Narsipatnam, Cheedikada and Butchayyapeta routes and it goes unnoticed. We need to be careful,” said ITDA Project Officer S. Venkateswar.
He said the officials were enforcing social distancing at markets and other establishments. “People who are coming from other districts to the Agency are being picked up at the disembarking points such as railway stations and bus stations, and shifted to quarantine facility directly,” he said.
