Hyderabad: The Warangal Urban district, set to go to polls to elect the council for the Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation on April 30, is exploding with Covid-19 cases.
The magnitude of how fast Covid-19 is spreading in Warangal Urban district can be gauged by the fact that the cases doubled overnight from Sunday to Monday — from 329 to 653 — in a matter of 24 hours.
On April 1, the district reported a mere 19 cases, which rose to 114 on April 15, the date on which polls to GWMC were announced by the State Election Commission, which in turn set off a flurry of political activity with all political parties, the TRS, Congress and the BJP, holding rallies, marches and street corner meetings to drum up support for their candidates.
Covid-19 safety norms have been a major victim in this process with the parties mobilising hundreds of party workers for these events.
Even as the cases were ballooning in the district, health minister Etala Rajendar, in-charge of the battle against Covid-19 in the state, too, was roped in by his party, the TRS, to campaign for its candidates in some of the GWMC wards on Monday. This move by Rajendar, who has been repeating ad nauseum Covid-19 warnings and asking people to behave, stay at home, and not gather into crowds, has not been taken to kindly by many government doctors who expressed severe displeasure at Rajendar breaking the Covid-19 safety protocols by campaigning for the TRS candidates.
Meanwhile, the BJP and Congress leaders too have been criss-crossing Warangal city campaigning for their respective candidates.
Despite the burgeoning Covid-19 cases — Warangal Urban with 653 cases on Monday reported the third highest caseload in the state — none of the political parties have scaled down their campaign to keep the very people they are promising to serve, safe from Covid-19.
Infograph
Covid-19 in Warangal Urban dt in April
April 1 – 19 cases
April 5 – 62 cases
April 10 – 98 cases
April 15 – 114 cases
April 20 – 244 cases
April 25 – 329 cases
April 26 – 653 cases
