Tirupati: Amid rising Covid cases, partial lockdown begins today

Tirupati: Amid severe spike in Covid positive casesthe partial lockdown to be imposed from Wednesday becomes a ray of hope among people. There was a feeling in several quarters that the lockdown is the only option to contain the spread of the infections and that it was already delayed.

Obviously, the government has waited till the by-election process was over on May 2 to take a call on imposing the partial lockdown on the next day.

The lockdown became the only option in Chittoor district like a few others in the State as it has been shivering with rampant rise in cases for the past one month. Unlike the first wave, the district has been recording between 2000-3000 daily cases now in the second wave. During the last 15 days, the cases have not come down below 1,500 while the peak during the first wave was 1,324. On Tuesday also the district reported 2,318 new cases.

Considering the gravity of the situation, traders have voluntarily come forward to approach the officials saying that they were ready to close their shutters by 2 pm. For the past one week, commercial activities were being closed by 2 pm itself though it did not yield any desired results so far as the number of cases have not come down.

But, the official partial lockdown will certainly make a huge impact with regard to the efforts in containing the virus, commented a grocery shop owner. Apart from closing the activities by 12 noon, there will be 144 section between 6 am to 12 noon which would prevent any gathering of groups of people on the streets and at markets.

An employee said that it is the time for police to act tough in implementing the lockdown restrictions for the sake of people. Otherwise, the partial lockdown may become another futile exercise.

From Wednesday, everything will come to a standstill from 12 noon. There will be no auto-rickshaws and city buses beyond that time and neither people's movement as well. Long distance buses will also be stopped after 12 noon. There was no clarity yet on the bank timings and government and private offices.

Temples also will have to be closed by 12 o'clock and it is expected that they will get a few devotees only under these circumstances. Kanipakam temple has already announced that the temple will be kept open from 6 am to 12 noon and all other poojas beyond this duration will be held in 'Ekantham'. Srikalahasteeswara devasthanam has resumed online sevas like last year.