The reason for the sudden spike in cases in Suryapet district — 31 COVID-19 positive cases within two days — a total of 54 till date was due to an infected shopkeeper in the vegetable market area.
At least 25 positive cases belong to the four families of traders, who are also closely-related, in the area, District Collector T. Vinay Krishna Reddy said on Saturday.
“After identifying the 9th positive case in the district last week, we took his 64 contacts into quarantine. Of all those that were tested, eight of them were positive, and their immediate families when diagnosed too were positive,” he said. However, no new case has been reported on Saturday, he added.
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“Importantly, of the 54 detected positive cases in the district till Friday 7 p.m., 53 are asymptomatic. But aggressive testing of the suspects and their relatives helped us diagnose them, and so is the spike in the cases now,” Mr. Reddy said.
Along with Superintendent of Police R. Bhaskaran, District Collector Mr. Reddy inspected the Kothagudam bazar area on Saturday and oversaw sanitisation with sodium hypochlorite solution. The district administration has also got 54 new sprayers for the purpose to be used across the town and the villages.
The police department has deployed sets of drone cameras to keep watch over the town and through the bylanes.
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Mr. Reddy said the administration was buying farmers’ produce and through ‘Mee Seva’ smartphone application being handled by the municipal authority, fruits, vegetables, medicines and groceries are being delivered at the doorstep.
“Since we do not disclose patient names, we release number of positive cases. And there is no need to panic, we have been aggressive on containing the disease and the spread is not happening. The district administration is with the people of Suryapet,” Mr. Reddy said.
Suryapet residents can dial 1800 425 1972, the 24-hour helpline, for any information, help and queries relating COVID-19.