The Karimnagar district, which had hit the headlines with the highest number of COVID-19 positive cases in Telangana with the arrival of 10 Indonesians, is limping back to normalcy with no new fresh cases since the last few days and the suspected 73 primary contacts (high risk) testing negative.
The 73 primary contacts, who moved closely with the Indonesians and were quarantined at Chalmeda Ananda Rao Institute of Medical Sciences (CAIMS) and Satavahana University for 14 days, were discharged on Wednesday evening. However, they would be home quarantined for another 14 days under the supervision of medical teams.
All the suspected persons testing negative has brought relief to the district administration.
Now, the authorities have launched a campaign educating people for social distancing to check the spread of the virus.
The ‘Trace, Test and Quarantine’ norm for suspected people had yielded good results in controlling the spread of the virus.
After the Indonesians were tested positive on March 20 and one local transmission tested positive from Mukarampura locality, the district authorities announced containment of three municipal divisions covering around 3,650 households from March 23 onwards where the Indonesians had roamed during their stay for two days.
Police had barricaded the three divisions and deployed round the clock surveillance forcing residents to remain indoors. The authorities had supplied milk, vegetables, groceries, ATM at their doorstep and also conducted door-to-door survey with 150 medical teams on two occasions with the support of IMA doctors.
Meanwhile, the municipal authorities have launched a special sanitation drive by using sodium hypochlorite solution and bleaching powder in the containment zone and in the entire town. Drones, fire tenders, tractor-mounted jet guns and automatic power sprayers were used for the sanitisation programme.
Also, 19 persons from the district, who returned from the markaz event in Delhi, were also shifted to hospital, of which 11 tested negative and four positive and the other reports are awaited. The 38 primary contacts of Delhi returnees were also quarantined. The same formula of containment zone was being adopted in Huzurabad localities, where three positive cases were reported.
Collector K. Shashanka said that the constant instructions by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar and other officials and the support from local elected representatives were instrumental in curtailing the spread of the virus.
“It was a teamwork with an active participation by the police,” he stated.
