The steady rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in Chittoor district, particularly in the eastern mandals, has turned into a big cause of concern for officials handling the pandemic.
The district’s tally stood at 510 cases as of Monday, with five deaths.
In the initial days of the lockdown, the cases were restricted to Tirupati and Srikalahasti, but as days went by, the virus started making its presence across the district, even in the remote areas of Tamballapalle Assembly constituency.
The mandals of Satyavedu, Varadaiahpalem, Nagalapuram, Pichatur, Puttur, Nagari, Karveti Nagaram, Nindra, GD Nellore, Chittoor and Gudipala, all of which border with Tamil Nadu, witnessed a spurt in cases linked to the Koyembedu market cluster.
The mandals of Irala, Bangarupalem and Tavanampalle, which remained virus-free till May, also registered their first patients who had links to Mumbai.
Following a sudden spike in Nagari and Satyavedu Assembly constituencies since a week, a testing kiosk was set up at the Government Area Hospital at Puttur on Sunday.
Inspections
As people criss-crossing border from Tamil Nadu started showing an impact on the tally, the Superintendent of Police, S. Senthil Kumar, made a whirlwind visit of the border check-posts from Satyavedu and Kuppam, and instructed the men on duty to strictly discourage public and vehicle movement without valid reasons.
Hefty fines
Inspecting the border check-post on Chittoor-Vellore border on Monday, the SP said: “We have instructed all the police personnel on the field duties to seriously implement the facemask norm and also impose hefty fines on violators, besides filing cases against them.”
The Chittoor police had collected a fine of about ₹80,000 from people violating rules till last Saturday. They also had reduced the business hours to a couple of hours in the morning in Puttur municipality with sudden spurt in the cases, with close to 15 in one week, including the death of an elderly man. The wine shops at some of the border villages in Chittoor district, particularly in the eastern mandals, were closed to tackle the spread of the virus.
