Complete lockdown; stranded tourists; six +ve cases and aggressive testing in Tirupati

New Delhi/Tirupati: The temple town of Tirupati has now gone under complete lockdown, with no official lines for the supply of essential commodities to residents stuck in the small town of southern Andhra Pradesh. Located in Chittoor district along with two other cities, Tirupati went into containment mode after the first case was detected in early April.

Since then, two major areas of the city - Thyagaraja Nagar and Yashoda Nagar have been converted into red zones and just the city of Tirupati has recorded six positive cases. Chittoor district, in whole, has recorded a total of 23 COVID-19 cases and is aggressively ramping up testing numbers among its residents.

While Chittoor district in total has tested over 1,000 samples for COVID-19, the town of Tirupati has identified 298 patients to be tested - 160 samples have been collected and tested, of which 6 have tested positive, 130 came back negative and the rest are pending. Tirupati has a total population of over 2.87 lakh people, as per the last Census report - putting its testing rate at approximately 56 people per lakh of its population.

While Tirumala Hills first got its scare when a person with COVID-19 symptoms fainted outside the temple and was sent to be tested for the novel Coronavirus; Medical Health Officer of Tirupati Municipal Corporation, Dr DT Sudha Rani said that the patient's test reports came back negative for COVID-19. Interestingly, this incident was what triggered the temple administration to put in place severe restrictions to prevent an outbreak.

However, officials have said that at least three cases in Chittoor district are linked to a single source gathering in Delhi.

While at least one case in Tirupati is linked to the single source gathering in Delhi, which was held in the first week of March, the Tirumala Temple administration had kept its doors open for devotees until a person with COVID-19 symptoms fainted outside the temple on March 16, following

which strict restrictions were put in place. Now, many people who had come to visit the temples from all over the country are stuck in Tirupati and adjoining cities and the temple administration has provided for their rest stops and guest houses to be used as facilities for quarantine and stay if required.

Most tourists, who were in Tirupati when the lockdown was announced had to stay put because of transportation coming to a standstill. Some families are paying monthly rent to hotels for boarding facilities, while others are staying in temple rest houses.

However, the most important concern for most families is to figure out how to survive the lockdown. Most said they understand the seriousness of the crisis and are willing to stay put as long as the government provides them food and

shelter.

Dr Sudha Rani said that Tirupati has been under complete lockdown and the local administration is waiting for further instructions. "It is difficult in the ed zones, where everything is stopped. In other parts, there is a sluggish movement during the early hours of the day when some vendors come out on the streets," she said.