At times when the Vizag city is seeing a rapid increase in cases, rural areas are fortunate enough to witness not much spread of the virus. After lockdown got announced in Andhra Pradesh and neighbouring states like Telangana, many migrant workers and people who were working in the neighbouring districts started returning to their villages, indirectly being carriers for the virus while travelling. Also, when villages heard about the lockdown and were alerted to the second wave of Covid-19, not many villages took the issue seriously.
According to sources, in the last few weeks, while Vizag city has reported 39 percent cases, rural areas have reported 65 percent of the total Covid-19 cases. Also, in the last few weeks, there has been more deaths reported in rural areas. As per the statistics, there have been about 10,917 positives reported from 24 April 2021 till today in rural areas. From 24 April to 15 May, 6,561 positive cases have been reported. In the last one week, there have been 300-400 cases reported.
Even in the Visakhapatnam agency areas, there has been a rise in Covid-19 cases. During the first phase, around 3,000 cases were reported in the agency areas when the tribals stopped tourists visiting agency areas. The second phase of the pandemic so far reported around 3900 cases.
A major rise in Covid-19 cases in rural areas is being seen due to regular events, functions and weddings being conducted in some of the villages. The daily wage labourers are seen not following any kind of Covid-19 norms while going to work. Against the partial lockdown, there are small shops, tea shops open where people are found crowded. Surprisingly, when the Health Department staff are on a survey to the rural areas to find out fever cases in every family, not many are readily coming forward to inform about fevers and other health issues seen in their families. During the first phase of the fever survey, around 11,000 individuals were found with mild symptoms. Even when the cases are being reported, many families are opting for home isolation. As many houses in the villages do not have many rooms to isolate Covid patients, it is leading to further spread of the virus to the other family members.
A Covid Control Centre has been set up at the Zilla Parishad office to monitor the positive patients. Once the data on positive cases is reported to the control centre, staff at the help desk contact those patients to know about their health situation.
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