Telangana and Andhra Pradesh reported five fresh Covid-19 positive cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases in the two Telugu states to 27.
An official bulletin released by the Telangana state medical and health department on Sunday afternoon said a fresh case was reported in the morning – that of a 24-year-old unmarried man hailing from Guntur in Andhra Pradesh.
“The patient, a resident of Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, arrived from London via Dubai and landed in Hyderabad International Airport. He was admitted at a designated hospital in Hyderabad and his condition is stable,” the bulletin said.
On Saturday morning, two more Sars-Cov-2 positive cases were reported in Hyderabad. For the first time, a primary contact (relative) of another person who already tested positive was detected, indicating that the disease had reached the second stage.
“The primary contact is a 35-year old male relative of another person with travel history to Dubai, who was the 14th positive case in the state. This Dubai returnee developed symptoms and was admitted to Gandhi Hospital on March 17, tested positive on March 19. The contacts were traced and were put under home quarantine. It turned out that one of the primary contacts of the positive patient also got infected and tested positive on Saturday,” an official bulletin said.
Similarly, another positive case that was reported on Saturday was that of a 33-year-old male working on cruise ship ‘MSC Bellissima’ with a travel history to Dubai. “With these three fresh cases, the total number of cases in Telangana went up to 22,” the official bulletin said.
Neighbouring Andhra Pradesh reported two more positive cases by Saturday night, taking the patients’ tally to five. A 24-year-old man, who came from Paris to Delhi on March 15, arrived in Vijayawada on March 17. He was admitted to hospital with symptoms of cold and fever on March 20 and tested positive on Saturday.
Similarly, another patient – a 22-year-old man returned to Rajahmundry from London via Hyderabad on March 18 and got admitted to hospital with symptoms. He tested positive on Saturday evening.
Following the fresh case reported in Vijayawada, Vijayawada police commissioner Dwaraka Tirumala Rao suggested to the state government to extend Janta Curfew to three more days to break the chain.
Telangana has not only extended the Janta Curfew to 24 hours till Monday morning but has also closed borders with all neighbouring states for 24 hours. The state is considering indefinite closure of border with Maharashtra considering the severity there.
The government invoked the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897, empowering local officials to take action necessary to contain the spread of the virus.
Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh government on Sunday announced introduction of work from home for 50 per cent of its employees, including the contract and outsourced staff, for maintaining social distance.
As per the order, 50 per cent of the employees will work from home while 50 percent will be in office. This will be on a weekly rotation basis. Already, the state secretariat has been closed for visitors.
“All section officers, assistant section officers and below cadre may be grouped as two (approximately 50%) and permitted to attend office on alternate weeks”, the order said. All the officials above section officer level will attend regularly (they have individual chambers in offices).
“Head of the Departments, District Offices and below Offices, all non-gazetted officers may be grouped as two (approximately 50%) and permitted to attend office on alternate weeks. All gazetted officers should attend the office regularly”, the order specified.
Officials appointed as advisors, chairpersons and consultants after retirement who are of the age of 60 years and above are allowed to work from home with the permission of heads of the department. Their emoluments will remain as fixed originally.
Officials who wish to self-quarantine, as a preventive measure and those aged above 50 years having underlying conditions like diabetes, respiratory problems, renal diseases and other life-threatening illness could work from home for a period up to April 4 to grant committed leave without production of medical certificate by the competent authority.
