Tirupati: Amid surging Covid cases, shortage of kits haunts people

Tirupati: The lack of preparedness to face the alarming Covid situation has been haunting the district for the past few days. Even though the number of daily Covid positive cases has been skyrocketing with each passing day, several people were pushed into further anxiety by denying them the Covid tests due to shortage of test kits.

Despite the steep surge in positive cases, there are no measures by officials to increase the tests. During the second wave last year more than 10,000 daily tests were conducted in the district on many occasions. However, during the current third wave, though the spread of the virus is rapid, less than 5,000 tests are being conducted each day.

The people were returning home from the testing centres run by the government without giving their samples. They were visiting private labs where around Rs 2,000 is being charged for each test. Also, there is a shortage of home isolation kits at several hospitals.

The officials were not revealing anything about the number of tests and other issues and attempts to contact them in this regard were going in vain. There was no transparency on the daily data on number of tests, positivity rate, how many are in home isolation, admissions and discharges in Covid care centres and hospitals. Only the number of positive cases in each mandal was being provided. With this, several speculations on the severity of the virus are doing rounds on social media.

One official has maintained that the district has been conducting more tests than any other district in the State. Following the ICMR guidelines, symptomatic patients and the primary contacts of positives are being tested. However, he denied the shortage of testing kits.

Meanwhile, the delay in opening the Covid care centres also became a problem for patients who want to get isolated. There was a view that these centres should have been opened in the first week of January itself.

On Wednesday, the district reported 1,822 positive cases which are 288 more than the previous day. The number of active cases has been fast reaching the 10,000 mark. Tirupati urban and rural together reported 542 cases followed by Chittoor urban with 254 cases, Srikalahasti – 76, Madanapalli – 66 and Pakala with 50 cases.

Meanwhile, Tirupati railway station director K Satyanarayana directed the staff to close all entry points into the station and use only Gate No.1 for entry into the station and Gate No.2 for exit. The staff has been conducting thermal screening and ensuring that the Covid protocols are strictly followed.