Schoolchildren are the worst affected in the second wave of COVID-19 in Kurnool and Anantapur districts.
Case in point is the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya at Sankar Nagar in Adoni, where 93 students and eight teachers (101 in all) tested positive for the pandemic, prompting the closure of the school for a week. On Sunday, Kurnool registered 729 COVID-19 positive cases and Anantapur 305. Kurnool district tested 3,500 samples and Anantapur tested 4,318 samples.
State Deputy Chief Minister and Health Minister Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas held a teleconference on Sunday with the District Medical and Health Officer ascertaining the steps taken to isolate the affected students and teachers. District Medical and Health Officer Rama Giddaiah said that when 18 students had tested positive initially in the tests done on April 14, RTPCR tests were done for all the students and staff on April 15 and 101 of them tested positive. Deputy DMHO Ranga Naik was overseeing the testing of students and teachers at Adoni.
All the students were sent home under special travel arrangements where they would remain in isolation. Kurnool Joint Collector Revenue and Development S. Ramsundar Reddy had instructed closure of the school for a week where 300 students attend classes regularly. Testing was being done for all the suspected primary and secondary contacts. Kurnool district has kept 11 hospitals ready for patients needing hospitalisation.
Anantapur Collector Gandham Chandrudu said that treatment at RDT Bathalapalli Hospital will start on Monday in addition to the six government hospitals and the KIMS Saveera private hospital in Anantapur. “We have 90% cases in home isolation, 6% of the cases at Covid Care Centres at JNTU and the remaining are in hospital,” he said.
The district received 45,000 doses of vaccine (39,000 doses of Covishield and 6,000 doses of Covaxin) and the priority will be given to the frontline workers, who were yet to be covered either for the first dose or the second.
