Tirupati: Pilgrim town now turns into coronavirus hub

Tirupati: The Chittoor district, which bore the brunt of coronavirus for the past few days, has resulted in reaching several new highs on Tuesday. By crossing 9,000 positive cases mark, the district has been racing towards the 10,000 mark in a couple of days as evident from the present trend.

The pilgrim city has been presenting an even more grim situation which accounts for about 49 per cent of total cases in the district. By Tuesday night, the district had reported 4,500 positive cases. The growing death rate is even more alarming both in Tirupati and in the district as well.

So far, 101 deaths were reported in the district of which 40 belongs to Tirupati city. Needless to say that there was no deaths in the initial days of pandemic. The first positive case in the district was reported on March 24 but up to May 18 there are no deaths. In May, two deaths were reported followed by seven in June. From July 1 to 28, there were 92 deaths in the district.

As long as there was lockdown in the entire country with no inter-district and inter-state movement was allowed, the Covid cases have been well under control. Once the unlock 1.0 has started, the district has been witnessing ever increasing cases without any respite. There were only 12 positive cases in Tirupati by May 18, which have gone up to 111 by June 20. But by July 28, the city has more than 4,500 cases and together with its rural segment it accounts for about 5,200 cases.

During lockdown except Srikalahasti, the situation in the remaining district was more or less satisfactory. As the restrictions were lifted, the cases have been surging to reach new highs. In July alone, 7,660 cases were reported till now while June accounts for 1,326, May – 206, April – 79 and March – 1 case.

Going by constituency wise, Tirupati segment tops the list of positive cases followed by Chandragiri and Nagari, Kuppam is in the last place with a little more than 40 cases so far. Even after bringing the entire Tirupati city under containment zone imposing restrictions after 11 am daily now, there was no improvement in the situation as the cases are going unabated.

The officials have been putting in various efforts and have been working untiringly in increasing bed strength and providing additional infrastructure. But the surge in cases has been making them to look for even more alternatives continuously.

As the restrictions have been coming into force from 11 am, people have been thronging into bazaars from morning and physical distancing could not be seen anywhere. Except going for Covid testing in large numbers, people seem to have no fear of the virus. Several people were not even wearing face masks properly even now. With the predictions say that there will be unimaginable spurt in the cases in August, the district and Tirupati in particular is all set to become a major hot spot for Covid.