Tension prevailed in Tirupati with the surfacing of yet another positive Covid-19 case at Yashoda Nagar abutting the administrative building of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) on Saturday morning, bringing the total cases to 10 in Chittoor district.
The case is a married woman, who along with three of her family members was immediately shifted to the isolation ward at the SVRR Hospital there.
The Covid-19 Task Force personnel said that the woman and her family members happened to come in contact with the returnees from Taglibhi Jamaat meet in New Delhi, in a train while returning from Hyderabad prior to the lockdown. The personnel sprayed disinfectant in the colony and its surrounding areas.
Tirupati MLA Bhumana Karunakar Reddy and Municipal Commissioner P.S. Girisha rushed to Yashoda Nagar and inspected the streets, before declaring it as a red zone. The approach roads and the internal streets of the colony and the surrounding areas were blocked cutting off inward and outward movement.
A couple of days ago, the first COVID-19 case in Tirupati was reported at the Thyagaraja Nagar, a few metres away from the Yashoda Nagar.
Catering workers worried
Meanwhile, about 200 catering personnel working at the TTD administrative building preparing food for free distribution among public expressed concern over the development, saying they have to pass through the twin red zones of Thyagaraja Nagar and Yashodha Nagar while coming to work. They urged the TTD authorities to shift preparation of food to outskirts of the city.
Meanwhile, AP State Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force (APSRSASTF) Superintendent of Police P. Ravi Shankar told the media that 140 of their personnel had been assigned COVID-19 duties at Tirupati, Rajampeta and Kadapa till the end of the lockdown.
Connected areas
Medical authorities on COVID-19 duties said that of the 10 positive cases, seven were detected in Tirupati, Renigunta, Yerpedu and Srikalahasti, the contiguous areas over a 35-km stretch. The other cases were recorded at Palamaner and Gangavaram on the western side, over 100 km away from Tirupati.
