TIRUPATI: While
Covid-19 cases
and the death toll has been going up steadily on one hand, the municipal corporation of
Tirupati announced more relaxations to the lockdown in the
temple city
from Sunday till August 31. According to the new diktat which came into effect from Sunday, shops and commercial establishments, offices etc can remain open from 6 am till 5 pm daily and the public should strictly remain indoors after 5 pm.
Interestingly, the municipal corporation of Tirupati maintained that the ''partial lockdown'' was extended till August 31 to ensure the incidence of Covid cases in the temple city comes down.
Municipal commissioner PS Girisha IAS appealed to the public to cooperate with the administration to strictly enforce the extended lockdown in the city till August 31.
Meanwhile, the number of urban health centres where the public can get themselves screened for the novel
coronavirus has been increased to 9 centres totally. These include Urban health centre at Bairagipatteda, Scavengers colony, Nehru Nagar, Renigunta road, Auto Nagar, Siva Jyothi Nagar, Prakasam road, Municipal health centre and Leela mahal road.
While the overall Covid-19 positive cases reported in the temple city so far has breached the 10,000 cases mark, the number of active cases in the city is around 5000 cases now. 93 Covid deaths were reported in the city till August 14.
Despite the temple city continuing to register nearly 900 odd cases every single day, officials easing lockdown norms could further spike the number of infections in the city, felt
Rayalaseema
porata samithi convener P Naveen Kumar Reddy. He appealed to the municipal officials to reconsider their decision and enforce a strict lockdown in the city until Covid cases come down to zero.