Visakhapatnam among India’s 70 ‘districts of concern’ for Covid-19 rise

The Government of India has identified ’70 districts of concern’ that have been witnessing a surge in Covid-19 cases. Marked across 16 states in the country, the districts have seen a worrying rise in Covid-19 cases between 1 March and 15 March, the authorities stated. In Andhra Pradesh, Krishna, East Godavari, Visakhapatnam, Chittoor, and Guntur have been identified as the districts of concern for registering a rise in Covid-19 cases.

While Krishna district reported the highest spike in Andhra Pradesh, with a 171.4% increase in the number of cases, East Godavari reported a spike of 150% in cases. Visakhapatnam, on the other hand, saw a 100% rise in Covid-19 cases between 1 March and 15 March. Chittoor and Guntur reported spikes of 92% and 70% respectively.

On Wednesday, Visakhapatnam reported 27 new Covid-19 cases taking the total number of positives so far to 60323, with 137 being active. On the state front, 253 new cases were reported as the total number of cases increased to 8,92,522.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with the Chief Ministers of various states today regarding the COVID-19 situation via video conference. The challenge of maintaining Covid appropriate behaviour in the general public was discussed, in light of the recent rise in the number of cases in some states. The Chief Ministers agreed on the requirement of greater vigilance and monitoring of the situation.

The Home Minister listed out the districts on which the Chief Ministers need to put a special focus, in order to contain the spread of the virus. The Union Health Secretary gave a presentation on the current Covid situation in the country and the vaccination strategy.

Addressing the Chief Ministers, the Prime Minister said that more than 96% of the cases in India have recovered and India is having one of the lowest fatality rates in the world. He expressed concern about the high test positivity rate in Maharashtra and MP. 70 districts of the country witnessed a 150 percent rise in the last few weeks. He urged to stop this emerging “second peak” of Corona immediately and warned that if we do not stop this growing pandemic now, then a country-wide outbreak can occur.

For stopping this emerging “second peak” of coronavirus, the Prime Minister stressed the need to take quick and decisive steps. Noting that the seriousness of the local Administration about the use of masks is going down, the PM called for immediate addressing of the governance problems at the regional level. He warned that the confidence which came from our achievements in the battle against Corona should not turn into negligence. He further stressed that the public should not be brought to panic mode and at the same time also get rid of trouble. He stressed the need to strategize by incorporating our past experiences, in our efforts.

The Prime Minister noted the need for the provision of micro containment zones. He stressed the need to be serious about ‘Test, Track and Treat’ as we have been doing for the last year. He said it is very important to track every infected person’s contacts in the shortest time and keep the RT-PCR test rate above 70 percent.