KADAPA: Fear broke out at Kadapa collector's office here on Saturday after news spread that 23 staff of District Water Management Authority (DWMA) office in D Block of the collectorate had tested positive for Coronavirus.
Two employees working in the DWMA social audit department here showed fever symptoms on Thursday. Following this, all employees in the section underwent Covid test and five tested positive. The matter was immediately brought to the notice of district collector Chevuru Harikiran. A Covid test was conducted on 60 employees on the collector’s instructions. As of Saturday morning, another 18 employees were declared positive and sent to home isolation. All staff members were immediately given the work from home option while the entire office was sanitized. But this development has spread fears in the collector's office complex.
An officer told Deccan Chronicle that not all employees had shown Covid symptoms but were isolated as a precautionary measure.
Public negligence is presumed to be the main reason for the increase in Covid cases, which for the last two months was in single digits but was now increasing.
Two days ago three family members of a forest officer in Siddavatam mandal were confirmed Covid positive.
It was on March 31 last year that 15 cases were reported for the first time in Kadapa district. At one stage it had risen to almost 1,000 cases per day. However, since December there has been a steady decline and it fell sharply in January and February. There has been a resurgence from the third week of this month. A total of 40 cases were reported in Kadapa district on Saturday. In addition, a total of 55,861 positive cases were registered in the district. So far 55,187 people have fully recovered from the disease and 84 are in home isolation.
Harikiran and SP Karur Karunapati Nagendra Kumar Anburajan have decided to impose heavy fines on those who come out without a mask. Shops allowing customers without masks would be strictly dealt with.
Anburajan told reporters that police teams would conduct inspections everywhere and warned that fines would be levied if anyone appeared on the roads without a mask.
