"Daya chesi maa intiki raakandi, me intiki raanivvakandi” (Please don’t come to our house, don’t allow us to come to yours) reads a board in front of a house in Padmashali colony in Hyderabad. This is one of many such boards put up in front of many houses in the colony in Hyderabad in view of the increasing coronavirus cases in the second wave of the pandemic.
Residents say that they want to fight coronavirus by setting some ground rules in the colony to protect themselves. The Padmashali colony association discussed the issue and decided to voluntarily stop visitors.
"We have to be careful in times of pandemic. We can fight the virus if we take the necessary precautions. So we have discussed and decided to put up boards restricting visitors and also to increase awareness among the public,” says R Anjaneyulu, president of Padmashali colony association.
Padmashali colony has about 500 households and roughly 2,000 residents. Several of these residents have put up boards.
Meanwhile, Telangana has also been recording a high number of cases each day. On Saturday, there were 4,446 cases and 12 deaths in the state, the highest single-day surge in the state since the start of the pandemic. This pushed the gross count to over 3.46 lakh, while the death toll rose to 1,809.
Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) accounted for the most number of cases with 598 followed by Medchal Malkajgiri (435) and Rangareddy (326), a bulletin said on Saturday providing details as of 8 PM on April 16.
The state has 33,514 active cases and over 1.26 lakh samples were tested on Friday. Cumulatively, over 1.14 crore samples have been tested.
According to the Telangana Public Health Director G Srinivasa Rao, the positivity rate doubled in the past 15 days.The positivity rate which was 1.63 per cent in March doubled to 3.52 per cent in April, he said.
A separate statement said over 24.51 lakh people in the state have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine while over 3.49 lakh got their second shot as well as of April 16.
The Telangana Health Ministry has advised residents to avoid gathering in public and to take all precautions when stepping out like wearing masks and maintaining social distancing to protect themselves.
(With PTI inputs )