Coronavirus Cases Surge In Greater Hyderabad Municipal Area, Mayor Wants Lockdown Extension Till May-End

With 30 Coronavirus (Covid-19) cases being reported from the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) yesterday (17 April), the mayor of the city has now asked the Telangana government to extend the lockdown in GHMC limits until May-end.

Hyderabad, especially GHMC areas, has proved to be problematic for the K Chandrasekhar Rao government in Telangana as the capital accounts for a little over 37 per cent of the 766 cases in the state.

The capital alone reported 43 of the 66 positive cases for the pandemic virus yesterday. This has resulted in the corporation creating 166 containment clusters totally with 20 of them cropping up yesterday.

Deccan Chronicle quoted GHMC mayor Bonthu Rammohan blaming the people for not cooperating with the government in observing the nation-wide lockdown.

He said the lockdown in the corporation limits would be extended until it dropped to zero. The mayor said the Chief Minister could come up with stringent rules against people violating the lockdown.

A Cabinet meeting of the Telangana government scheduled tomorrow (19 April) could come up with measures to enforce the lockdown more vigorously.

Rammohan’s lament is that over 45,000 vehicles have been seized for breaking the curfew and people still had the courage to roam about on road with fake passes.

The problem for GHMC is that while it has kept a tight vigil on the containment areas, it has basically left the citizens to be more responsible in adhering to the lockdown.

Rammohan pointed out that a street vendor in the corporation limits got infected after coming in contact with a person who had returned from the Tablighi Jamaat Aalami Markaz Nizamuddin congregations last month in Delhi.

Before testing positive, the vendor came in contact with at least 45 persons. In another case, a person travelled by train with those returning from the Nizamuddin Markaz.

Though he did not show any signs of the pandemic, his landlady died of coronavirus. Rammohan is now pleading with the people to quarantine for 28 days even if they test negative for Covid-19.

“We are not sure whether a 14-day quarantine is enough to contain Covid-19. I advise people to quarantine for 28 days even though they have tested negative,” Rammohan said.

He has also asked the people to take pictures of those violating the lockdown and social distancing norms for the authorities to take punitive actions.

Yesterday, Telangana Health Minister Eatala Rajender said that 640 of the 700 Coronavirus cases reported until 16 April were traced to the Tablighi Jamaat congregations.

He said that 20 family members of a person who returned from the Nizamuddin Markaz tested positive for the pandemic virus. Six persons who had returned from the Tablighi congregation had infected 81 persons, including family members.

A majority of the 18 deaths in Telangana are also traced to the Nizamuddin Markaz events.