Covid-19: Special teams deployed as rural Vizianagaram sees surge

VISAKHAPATNAM: With over 40 per cent of Covid-19 infections and deaths reported from rural parts of Vizianagaram district for the past one week, the district administration has decided deploy special teams to implement curfew and counsel youngsters in rural areas. The administration will fast track the door-to-door fever survey and screening drive in rural areas.
Vizianagaram has been reporting at least 10 deaths and around 1,000 new cases every day for the past few days.Most Covid-19 deaths were reported from rural areas in the district.
Vizianagaram district collector M Hari Jawaharlal said that the youth were not following the precautions and not getting treatment on time.
“We have to protect rural areas from the virus and every officer should ensure that screening and identifying those with fever are carried out in all villages,” he added.
The district administration asked the officials to identify the people with Covid-19 symptoms in rural areas and to appeal to the people who have the symptoms to stay at home for some days and to supply the Covid kits (medicines) to contain the spread of the virus in rural pockets.
Apart from conducting tests on over 5,000 samples in a day in rural pockets, the district administration has also decided to speed up test results (within a day) to identify patients at an early stage to mitigate the fatalities, the collector added.
The district administration has decided to make use of the services of various NGOs and voluntary organizations in containment operations.