The unprecedented spike in the COVID-19 cases in Chittoor district during the last one month, with 740 cases on Saturday, has kept the district administration on heels.
Deputy District Medical and Health Officer P. Ravi Raju, along with COVID-19 Task Force officials, has inspected the ongoing vaccination drive at the community health centres at Nagari and Puttur, and the primary health centres in Nagari assembly constituency limits. “As per instructions from the District Collector, we have been focussing on the border areas in eastern mandals,” the official said. Saturday’s tally was the highest the district has seen since September last.
Mass vaccination drives as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for ‘Tika Utsav’ from April 11 to 14 would be followed by awareness campaigns in all vulnerable mandals highlighting the importance of COVID-19 protocols, he said.
“At present, we have 20,000 doses of vaccine, and additional stocks are arriving for the special drive. All the eligible persons (every one aged above 45) will be covered,” he said, assuring the public that the district has enough stocks of vaccine.
All the private hospitals have been instructed to send a list of symptomatic persons to the respective area authorities to expedite detection of cases, apart from tracing the primary and secondary contacts. The medical shops were strictly warned not to sell medicines for COVID symptoms without prescription from a qualified medical personnel.
“In coordination with the police, special teams would be monitoring the facemask and sanitizer rule at all public places, in view of the spurt in the cases,” Dr. Ravi Raju said.