Ameenpur, a municipality in Telangana has declared a self-lockdown after persuading shopkeepers.
Hyderabad: Seeing the rising number of Covid-19 cases in Ameenpur, the municipality body has imposed self-lockdown from May 11, 2021 to May 23, 2021.
Mallikarjun, Manager in the Ameenpur municipality said, “Self-lockdown will be in place from May 11 to May 23. We have called the colony presidents and discussed the importance of lockdown. They have also agreed to self-lockdown because we are seeing 30-40 cases each day.”
Suresh Babu, Ameenpur municipality Sanitary Inspector said, “Those aged above 40 are more vulnerable. Considering them, we have decided to self-lockdown. We are spreading awareness about vaccines and requesting everyone to vaccinate themselves as we have an adequate number of vaccines.”
Yenugu Likith, a resident of Ameenpur said, “State government anyhow is not caring about public health. So self-lockdown is the only way left for us to keep the spread of the virus in control. The number of deaths is increasing day-by-day. In the last two weeks three people died in our neighborhood due to covid-19. State government now should at least realize and implement a state-wide partial or full lockdown.”
Suresh Babu said, “We have called all the shop owners and discussed with them about the lockdown. We gave some suggestions on managing the customers by allotting time slots. Shops can function from 6 am to 12 pm. Initially, some shop owners disagreed with the lockdown but our commissioner, P. Vemana Reddy spoke to them and got them to agree.”
Praneeth Reddy, a resident of Ameenpur said, “There is no use of lockdown as there are many examples where even after implementing lockdown, there was no decline in the number of cases. I think we should focus more on improving immunity by exercising more and maintaining a healthy diet. I don’t think people will follow this self-lockdown. They will sit at home maximum for two to three days, and will be back on the streets on the fourth day.”
Dr. Ajitha, an associate professor at the School of Medical Sciences, University of Hyderabad, said, “Lockdown will definitely help in slowing down the transmission of Covid-19. That is why every state in India, except Telangana, is in partial or full lockdown. It won’t prevent the virus from spreading but if the transmission speed lessens, the number of cases per day will come down and everyone can have access to hospital beds and oxygen.”
She explained how there is a shortage of ventilators, beds, and oxygen in the state as the hospitals are overwhelmed due to thousands of cases. “ During the first wave, the government imposed a lockdown for several months. According to some researchers, lockdown must be implemented at least for two to three weeks in the same way.”
Telangana has 62797 active Covid-19 cases with an average of 6000 cases per day. Due to the recent surge in cases, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has ordered the appointment of 144 doctors, 527 nurses and 84 lab technicians. He has also instructed the District Collectors to begin a special recruitment drive which would complete the appointment process in five days
