Gone are the days when legislators to local leaders enthusiastically drove sanitiser-fitted tractors or flew drones over residential colonies to spray sodium hypochlorite. Disinfection tunnels to fight COVID-19 spread were also prominent in the town junctions.

From April, when the positive numbers in the district were under 50, to 268 now, corresponding disinfection measures by authorities only suggest an inverse relationship. However, like private hospitals for treatment, private agencies offering sanitisation services, at a per-square-foot price in Nalgonda, come as no surprise.

Gunda Venkatesh, 23-year-old and unemployed till recently, is a busy man taking calls for home sanitisation these days. Banks, offices and retail stores are prospective customers, he says. Tied up with a paint manufacturer-distributor, which started producing surface and hand sanitisers during the pandemic, he offers the service, with pricing based on size of the space. Flyers circulated by Venkatesh are self-explanatory, showing a fixed price for residences and ranging between ₹ 1.40 and ₹ 2 per square foot for commercial spaces.

According to him, “A lot of people call for enquiries, but only a few confirm. The fear is that only people who tested positive get their premises sanitised,” he says. And so, to reassure, the person using the electrical equipment to spray the ‘anti-virus protection’ will be in a personal protective equipment kit, for each single use, he explains.

Among the customers till now, banks branches, which receive diverse footfall on a daily basis, were the first ones to get the protection. For Venkatesh, who purchased an advance equipment for the process, prices are slightly negotiable.

“The discounted package, like ₹ 1,200 for the entire 1 BHK, includes the company-produced sanitiser bought at MRP, application work for about 30 minutes and the PPE kit. It is the same process as a paint job, which is also certified by the company,” he adds. Not only private persons, but a few government offices, like a police office in Vemulawada which was sprayed recently, are among the list of customers.