Hyderabad: Shamshabad ups sanitation drive as Covid tests go down

Shamshabad: On the sidelines of regular disinfectant campaigns by the sanitary and health wing of the Shamshabad Municipality to arrest the spread of coronavirus infection, the count of positive cases keeps moving on in the area that connects Hyderabad city with neighbouring States, especially the Bengaluru city in Karnataka.

There are three Covid-19 health centers formed at Shamshabad, Peddashapur, Narkhoda. It is said that 60 to 70 positive cases are reported every day in the Shamshabad Municipality. However, it is said that the pace of tests at Covid centres has dropped down in recent days that has significantly been reflected over the positive cases.

"Earlier, 100 to 300 tests were said to have been carried out in each centre every day and 60 to 70 persons were found to have been positive with the infection. Now, as the number of tests were brought down to 80 to 90 in recent days the cumulative number of positive cases narrowly came down to somewhere between 10 to 20," informed Mahmood, a resident of Shamshabad who is familiar with the day to day events at the Covid-19 centres.

Shamshabad Municipality consists of 25 wards on the city outskirts which includes the highly-sensitive area of Shamshabad International Airport under its geographical fold. The municipality carved out in the year 2018 by merging six-gram panchayats such as Satamrai, Kothwalguda, Gollapalli, Thondpally, Ootpally, and Shamshabad. It shares the boundaries with Jalpally and Kuthur municipalities in Rangareddy district besides Rajendranagar under GHMC limits.

Sensing the enormity of the situation after a rapid increase in the Covid-19 positive cases in the municipality, the sanitary and medical and health wing has taken up disinfectant drives more vigorously to arrest bacterial spreads under their area of operation.

Sanitary staff involved in the drive taking up spraying of sodium hypochlorite in various localities and at places identified as vulnerable points of bacterial dissemination. It is said that at least three wards are being covered every day at three different times. To chin up the sanitary staff, Chairperson K Sushma Mahender Reddy herself participated in the disinfected campaign in order to highlight the importance of safety measures at this crucial time.

"The disinfection campaign has been going on for the last one month in all the 25 wards of the municipality as a part of Covid-19 containment measures. Sanitary and health wing workers going around the room at every locality to spray sodium hypochlorite that helps arrest the spread of bacteria," informed Mohammed Saber Ali, Commissioner Shamshabad Municipality.