AP issues new quarantine guidelines for COVID-19; Labels Telangana, Karnataka as 'high-risk'

Amaravati, July 14: The Andhra Pradesh government has categorised Telangana and Karnataka as "high-risk" states as it issued fresh guidelines for quarantine of people coming into the state from various parts of the country and also abroad as part of measures to fight COVID-19.

Hitherto, Karnataka and Telangana were categorised as low-risk but latest statistics indicated that the infection rate in the two neighbouring states was on the rise and, hence, they were now classified as high-risk, a government order said.

As many as 661 people who came from Telangana and 81 from Karnataka to AP after Unlock 1.0 tested positive for coronavirus, adding to the 31,103 cases registered in the state so far.

Special Chief Secretary (Health) K S Jawahar Reddy, in the Covid Instant Order-64, prescribed a uniform institutional quarantine of seven days for all foreign returnees.

Admission in the quarantine centers may be strictly restricted to primary contacts of positive cases who cannot maintain home quarantine. Those primary contacts who can maintain home quarantine for 14 days may be permitted for the same based on the assessment of the facilities (at home) by the medical officer, he said. For the foreign returnees test might be conducted between the 5th and 7th day (upon arrival) and, based on the result, follow up action be initiated, he added.

He said 10 per cent of people coming into the state by air, rail and road should be tested on a random basis. However, all the persons coming from other states may be advised strict home quarantine for 14 days, Jawahar Reddy told the district Collectors. Andhra Pradesh has not opened its inter-state borders yet for movement of persons and obtaining an e-pass for entry into the state is still mandatory. Meanwhile, the AP State Road Transport Corporation has announced it was cancelling over 150 inter-state services to Bengaluru in view of the lockdown being imposed in the Garden City from July 15 to 23.

Andhra Pradesh reported 37 Covid-19 deaths on Monday, the highest in a single day, taking the death toll in the state to 365. The state tested 19,247 samples in the last 24 hours, out of which 1,935 tested positive. With this, the total number of positive cases crossed 30,000 and stood at 31,103. The state has tested a total of 11,73,096 samples so far. Officials from the Covid Command Control Room said that a majority of the deaths are due to patients having comorbidities.