Partial lockdown extended in AP till May-end to curb rising number of cases

With just a day left for the partial lockdown to complete in Vizag, there was a worrisome situation in Vizag on what the government’s decision would be to control the continuing rise in cases. Observing that there is still a need for control of Covid-19 cases, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday announced that the partial lockdown in AP is to be extended till the end of May 2021. While there would be no change in curfew relaxation timings which is from 6 am to 12 noon, citizens were told to follow the Covid-19 norms during the lockdown.

So far, Vizag and the rest of AP has been following a partial lockdown from 5-18 May for two weeks. People are allowed to move out from 6 AM – 12 noon, after which no one is allowed to move out unless there is an emergency. There was also an E-pass system implemented for those travelling intra-state and those coming to Andhra Pradesh. However, the state Chief Minister, during his meeting on Monday, said that two weeks of lockdown is not sufficient for the Covid-19 cases to come down and hence, the lockdown in AP is being extended till May-end. He observed there has been an increase in cases in rural areas, which the district officials have been asked to keep a note on.

As Vizag saw an increase in the number of cases, reporting at least 2,000 cases per day, the partial lockdown gave hope of controlling the cases. However, there wasn’t any significant decline in Covid-19 cases. On Monday, the Centre released a list of states which showed an increase in Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours. Among the 10 states on the list, Andhra Pradesh stood at the fifth position, recording 22,517 positives. Vizag which has shown an increase in cases in the last few weeks has reported 112335 positives. As per the statistics, Covid-19 cases from 19-25 April were 6,267, the number rose to 10,257 during 26 April – 2 May. By 9 May, the numbers of Covid-19 were 14,413 in the district.

Meanwhile, for those children who have become orphans after their parents died due to Covid-19, CM told the officials to keep them under child protection centres. He instructed that such children were to be identified and kept under government shelter. Officials were told to make the list of such children, deposit some amount of money in their account for their future needs.