Minister for Tourism Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao on Wednesday appealed to the public to invariably wear masks and observe other precautionary measures like frequent hand-washing to check the spread of COVID-19.
Addressing a press meet here on Wednesday, the Minister said that the government has distributed 59 lakh masks in rural areas of the district and 25 lakh masks in the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) limits. A total of 64,000 PPE kits were available. Patient beds and ventilators were also available and the government was fully geared to meet any exigency, he said.
Of the 3,231 persons quarantined so far, 490 were still in quarantine in the 70 quarantine centres in the district. The 29 patients in the State COVID Hospital in the city include those from Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakapatnam and East Godavari districts. There were 25 containment zones in the district, including 22 in GVMC limits and three in the rural areas. The ward volunteers were conducting the 4th round of COVID-19 survey in the containment zones, he said.
Residents of containment zones would be allowed to come out only for emergencies like purchase of medicine. Mobile rythu bazaars were being made available in the containment zones, he said.
Mr. Srinivasa Rao said that Vande Bharat flights from Abu Dhabi and Manila brought stranded Indian nationals to Vizag on Tuesday night. Of them, 84 hail from Visakhapatnam district.
District Collector V. Vinay Chand said that 73 migrant labourers were sent from Visakhapatnam to Uttar Pradesh. Brahma Kumaris came from Mt. Abu in Rajasthan to Vizag. He said that the police would issue permission for those who have to go to other districts. The movement of people across the country would increase in the days to come and the public should be all the more careful by adopting social distancing measures, wearing masks and observing personal hygiene to check the spread of coronavirus.
GVMC Commissioner G. Srijana, Andhra Medical College Principal PV Sudhakar, DMHO S. Tirupathi Rao and former MLA Malla Vijay Prasad were present.
