Authorities of the Chittoor Municipal Corporation have further restricted the movement of people in the corporation limits, by reducing the business hours of all establishments from Thursday.
The municipalities of Palamaner, Punganur, Madanapalle, Puttur and Nagari have also imposed curbs on the movement of the people, with a sharp rise in the COVID-19 positive cases. The business hours, which used to be between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m., now have been restricted to 11 a.m.
By Thursday, the number of positive cases crossed the 6,800-mark in the district, with 65 deaths. The eastern mandals of Puttur, Nagari, Narayanavanam and Satyavedu continued to register new cases daily in July with no respite.
Vigil on borders
The public movement across the inter-State borders through the porous rural roads continued to bother the police, revenue and medical officials on COVID-19 duties.
The civic authorities had embarked on a constant tom-tom through public address system at all public places and had even taken up street-to-street announcement, urging people to immediately bring to the notice of the officials if they happened to know about the arrival of any person in their locality from Tamil Nadu, particularly from Chennai.
Deputy SP (Puttur sub-division) D. Murali Dhar said police personnel had been posted at all vital junctions in Satyavedu, Nagalapuram, Pichatur, Nindra, Nagari, Puttur, Karveti Nagaram and S.R. Puram mandals to keep a vigil on public movement through the porous border with Tamil Nadu, while surveillance had been intensified at the check-posts.
The police personnel have been told to prioritise implementation of the norms pertaining to wearing masks and social distancing at all public places.