AP Issues New COVID-19 Quarantine Guidelines, Categorises Telangana As 'High-Risk' State

AMARAVATI: As part of its fight against COVID-19, the Andhra Pradesh government on Monday, July 14 issued fresh guidelines for quarantine of people coming into the state from various parts of the country and also abroad.

Special Chief Secretary (Health) K S Jawahar Reddy, in the Covid Instant Order-64 told the district Collectors that all the persons coming from other states may be advised strict home quarantine for 14 days.

Although it categorised Telangana and Karnataka as "low-risk" states earlier, the two South Indian states have been categorised as "high-risk" states.

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.

The order 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.

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.

On Tuesday, July 14 India's COVID-19 tally sprinted past nine lakh with 28,498 fresh cases recorded in a day, just three days after it crossed the eight-lakh mark, according to the Union health ministry data. The total coronavirus caseload in the country surged to 9,06,752.

The death toll mounted to 23,727 with 553 people succumbing to the disease in 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am on Tuesday, July 14 showed.

Of the 553 deaths reported in 24 hours, 37 were from Andhra Pradesh while Telangana has reported nine fatalities.