The incidence of a 30-year-old man with travel history to Bengaluru testing positive to the COVID-19 at Punganur has prompted the medical and police personnel to focus on the western mandals of Chittoor district, which reported as many as 159 cases on Sunday, taking the total over 3,200.

With parts of Karnataka getting ready for the lockdown, the police have intensified vigil at border check-posts at Nangili and Madanapalle, expecting a hike in inter-State movement.

While the pandemic has been rattling the eastern mandals, particularly Puttur, Nagari and Srikalahasti municipalities, it seems like it’s now the turn of the western mandals of the Madanapalle revenue division.

Remote areas affected

The municipalities of Madanapalle and Punganur have been witnessing steady spike in positive cases. On Sunday, Madanapalle police sub-division had registered as many as 14 cases, which included cases from the remote mandal of Gurramkonda too. Madanapalle division had so far accounted for three casualties.

The Punganur municipality, which remained considerably free from the virus till June end, saw an upward trend of cases in July. Municipal Commissioner (Punganur) Lokeswara Varma appealed to the people to avoid all non-essential travel.

Deputy-Superintendent of Police (Madanapalle) A. Ravi Manohar Achari said the officials were on the job to identify the primary contacts of the patients in the region. “The border with Karnataka is under strict surveillance due to the volatile situation there,” he said.

Meanwhile, District Medical and Health Officer (DMHO) M. Penchalaiah said that as many as 20,000 testing kits had arrived in Chittoor district, along with the required stocks of the thermal guns and oxy-metres.

He sought the duty personnel at all the primary health centres to submit the indents for procuring the stocks, as he said it was imperative for the paramedical staff to be equipped with them(thermal guns and oxy-metres).