East Godavari still continues with 5 per cent Covid-19 positivity rate

Kakinada: East Godavari district is still registering a high Covid-19 positivity rate, at 5 per cent, and this is causing concern among the people. For the past two days, 63 students and staff members of Jawahar Navodaya School at Peddapuram got infected with Covid19 virus.

Jawahar Navodaya has allowed the students for off-line classes for the past one month and registration and enrolment of Class X and XII students for CBSE syllabus had been done. Many parents visited the school recently to submit the documents of the students.

The school officials felt that the virus might have infected the students during their interactions with parents. The school principal K Ramireddy said 34 girls, 25 girls and four staff members contracted Covid19 virus, despite all steps the school took for health safety in its premises.

He said the parents were allowed in only to the administrative block and not inside the hostels or the class rooms. However, some parents might have met the students. The staff members were visiting markets to purchase vegetables and other essentials for cooking. This too might have spread the virus to the school, he said.

The principal said the parents need not get panicky as the health personnel and police are paying full attention to them and all affected students were kept in quarantine and they are being rendered medical treatment at the school itself.

Steps have been taken to ensure that the virus did not spread to other students. All the classrooms and hostels have been sanitized and all Covid-19 protocols are being followed.

Meanwhile,  some other places in the district also registered Covid19 cases. On Sunday, 94 Covid19 cases were recorded and 69 patients were put in home isolation in various areas. On Saturday, the number was 172.

The district health officer Dr Gowreeswara Rao said all steps were being taken to curb the virus. However, due to non-implementation of Covid19 protocols in some areas, the pandemic was still spreading.

He said the areas where the massive business is being done and also areas of fishermen are seeing the Covid19 spread. Some of the people are not wearing masks and not maintaining social distance. There are crowd formations in markets and malls.

However, on Sunday, vaccination was done on 260 persons and a massive Covid19 vaccination programme has been on. Some 32,18,516 people have been given Covid19 vaccine in the district and the remaining people would also be covered soon. It was expected that 35 lakh people could be vaccinated under a drive for those above 18 years of age. In view of the third wave predictions, people should be aware and take steps to keep the virus away, he added.

Meanwhile, Peddapuram mandal registered 51 cases and Amlapuram 13, Mandapeta 7, Kakinada Urban 5, Rajamahendravaram Urban 4, Pithapuram 3; I Polavaram, Kothapeta and Uppalauptam mandals three each; and Gollaprolu, Kirlampudi, Nellipaka, Ramachandrapuram and Shankavarm registered one each in the district.