Coronavirus: 133 "Containment Clusters" In 11 Andhra Districts, Red Alert Sounded

The Andhra Pradesh government has identified 133 "containment clusters" in 11 districts of the state and sounded a red alert to contain the spread of coronavirus.

These containment clusters are largely in the urban and peri-urban areas, Andhra Pradesh special chief secretary P V Ramesh told NDTV. The maximum containment clusters are in Nellore district, followed by Kurnool in the Rayalaseema region.

State nodal officer for COVID-19, Arja Srikanth, has said the government was taking all steps to check the spread of the pandemic by tightening the lockdown restrictions.

"Creating awareness among people on public health, maintaining physical distance, testing every suspect cases, keeping the contacts in isolation to prevent community transmission are some of the key steps we are taking in the containment clusters. Except for emergency medical and government services, movement of people will be totally restricted in these clusters," Mr Srikanth said.

In urban areas, a three-kilometre area from where a coronavirus positive case was detected would be treated as a containment cluster and a five-kilometre area as buffer zone.

In rural areas, the buffer zone would extend to seven kilometres, the nodal officer added.

Thermal screening would be done at all the entry and exit points to the containment cluster and movement of all vehicles, including public transport, would be fully prohibited.

"We will list out and trace all the contacts of coronavirus positive patients within 12 hours and ANMs and Asha workers will maintain a strict surveillance on them," the nodal officer said.

SPS Nellore district, which has 48 COVID-19 cases, has the highest number of 30 containment clusters in the state.

Kurnool has 22 and Krishna 16 clusters while Srikakulam and Vizianagaram, which have so far remained coronavirus-free, have no such red zones.