Vijayawada has been witnessing a rapid rise in the incidence of COVID-19 infections of late, and a majority of the Krishna district’s 46 containment zones and 604 active cases were in the city.
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District Collector A.Md. Imtiaz said that the positivity rate of the samples tested every month in the district came down from 7.7% in October to 0.4% in February but in the current month so far it was 1.1%.
He said the district saw nearly a thousand infections in the past month, including the 500 reported in the past week. Of the 500, 424 cases were reported in Vijayawada and surrounding areas.
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Currently, there are 46 containment zones and most of them were in Vijayawada, Jaggaiahpeta, Kankipadu and Penamaluru, he said.
As many as 19 infections were reported in schools, where 10 teachers and nine students tested positive, he said.
Mr. Imtiaz said the rate of transmission of the virus from person to person was faster compared to that in the corresponding month last year. He said that if a person in the family contracted the virus, the remaining members were also getting infected in no time.
New strains
He said two foreign returnees brought in two different strains of the novel coronavirus to the district, but they were isolated and none caught the infection from them. One person, who returned from the U.K. and the other from South Africa tested positive with the new strains from respective regions, he said.
Mr. Imtiaz said that the government would strictly enforce COVID appropriate behaviour at public places and would provide the necessary infrastructure to deal with the increasing number of infections.
He called upon the eligible public to get vaccinated as more vaccination centres were being set up. So far, 1.8 lakh persons got vaccinated in the district and 40,000 of them got both doses. Mr. Imtiaz said that there would be no lockdown or restrictions on gatherings at public places but vigil to ensure people wear masks would be stepped up.