A ten-day lockdown, to check the COVID-19 spread, came into force at 10 a.m. on Wednesday across the old undivided Khammam district bringing normal life to a virtual halt with people remaining indoors, and shops and markets remained shuttered.
The 20-hour-a-day lockdown began amid heavy police deployment with senior police officials personally monitoring the enforcement of lockdown to break the chain of coronavirus infections. Essential service providers and other government and private employees of certain categories, notified in the lockdown circular, were exempted from the curbs.
Those bound for COVID-19 vaccination centres for receiving second doses of the vaccine were allowed after checking their certificates of first dose, sources said.
Perhaps for the first time in the State, liquor outlets opened at 6 a.m. and made a brisk sale in various parts of the district till the stipulated time frame of 10 a.m. on the first day of the lockdown. People were seen standing in queues in front of shops and supermarkets to buy groceries and at several shops milk packets were sold out by 8 a.m. in Khammam.
In Bhadradri-Kothagudem district, the historic Sri Sitaramachandra Swamy temple closed its doors for devotees on Wednesday in compliance with the lockdown regulations to prevent the spread of coronavirus infections. The streets encircling the temple complex and other thoroughfares of Bhadrachalam wore a deserted look with the police strictly enforcing the lockdown measures.
Sources said that the mandal revenue officials imposed a fine of ₹ 1,000 on the owner of a hotel at Vinayakapuram village in Aswaraopeta mandal for allegedly violating lockdown regulations.