With the positivity rate of COVID -19 touching close to 25% in the district, the medical fraternity has welcomed the State government’s decision to extend the partial curfew till the end of the month.
Continuing the same timings, it is learnt that the curfew will be enforced from 12 p.m. to next day 6 a.m. and the window period, which will be observed under Cr Pc 144 Section, is from 6 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Since mid April, the district has been seeing a huge surge in cases, including an increase in the official death rate.
On April 9, the total cases were around 64,139 and active cases were 2,082. By May 16 (Sunday), the total cases have gone up to 1,12,847, which indicate that about 48,000 cases were reported during this period and the active cases as on Sunday stood at 20,952.
Similarly, on April 9, the death count stood at 554 and by Sunday it has risen to 771. The district recorded 217 deaths, in the same period.
On the brighter side, during the same period about 29,000 people, who were affected with the virus, also recovered.
“It was a good decision to extend the curfew, as the cases are piling up at the hospital doorsteps. We are just about seeing a slight dip in cases and it will be ideal to extend the curfew for a few more days to break the chain of spread,” said District COVID Special Officer and Principal of Andhra Medical College P.V. Sudhakar.
Another senior doctor from the King George Hospital (KGH) said that a strong curfew or lockdown for a few more days can bring down the curve and the positivity rate.
“Right now we are testing around 7,500 to 8,000 people on a daily basis and we are are recording around 2,000 to 2,200 positive cases on an average, which indicate that the positivity rate is around 25%. In the last week of April it was around 15.2 %,” said a senior official from the District Medical and Health Department.
In such a scenario, a stronger enforcement of curfew is the need of the hour, as it may curtail the spread, said Hema Prakash from GITAM Institute of Medical Science and Research.
If the spread is curtailed, the load on the hospitals will come down, and the health machinery will function better, said a senior doctor from KGH.
