Chittoor’s new high of 1,024 cases sets alarm bells ringing

Public transport in the district sees a fall in occupancy rate

Chittoor district’s daily count of COVID-19 cases touched 1,024 on Friday, the highest since September last year.

While Tirupati Municipal Corporation and surrounding areas saw 424 cases, Chittoor Corporation reported 77, Srikalahasti and Punganur municipalities 40 and 37 cases respectively.

The virus prevalence, which remained limited to around a dozen mandals in the beginning of the month, has now spread to 61 out of 66 mandals in the district, with the areas bordering Karnataka and Tamil Nadu accounting for most of the new cases. The rise of COVID cases in Bengaluru and Chennai has its impact on Chittoor district as hundreds of traders and vendors keep travelling to these two busy destinations.

In May last year too, the district saw an unprecedented rise when Koyambedu market in Chennai became a hotbed of new infections.

Disturbing trend

District Medical and Health Officer M. Penchalaiah, alarmed over the growing incidence, said that the spread was 60% in the urban areas, followed by 40% in the rural belt.

“Though we had seen the daily count of over 1,400 cases in the district in August last year, Friday’s number of 1,024 remains the highest in the second wave period since one month. Our top priority is to monitor patients under home isolation, besides expediting tracking of primary and secondary contacts,” Dr Penchalaiah said.

The second wave impact has once again led to fall in the occupancy rate not only in the APSRTC bus services, but also in the express trains passing through Chittoor district, towards Chennai, Bengaluru and Vijayawada. The share-autos, which ply in large numbers on both National Highways towards Nagari and Nagalapuram, have mostly gone off the road, with gradual cut in the number of passengers. The public transport in the western mandals towards Karnataka has also started seeing poor occupancy in buses and autorickshaws.

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