CHITTOOR: Outpatient (OP) services at Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences (SVIMS) were suspended for four days on Tuesday as 40 of its staff, including doctors and paramedics, have tested positive for the coronavirus. OP services were also cancelled at BIRRD hospital, also run by the TTD.
Meanwhile, SVRR hospital, another COVID hospital, is also strained as Chittoor district has been reporting cases in triple digits everyday. On Tuesday, it recorded 238 new cases, which took the total number of infections to 3,074.
With more than 1,000 cases recorded in Tirupati alone and over 100 in the rural mandal, the temple city has emerged as a COVID hotspot.
Though officials of the Tirupati municipal corporation have been making desperate efforts to contain the virus and enforced a partial lockdown in the city from Monday, locals firmly believed that now was the time to enforce a stringent lockdown in the city.
The fact that the coronavirus cases and toll have doubled in the span of a week, reflects the grave situation in Chittoor. According to official data, the overall infections and toll here were 1,510 and 15, respectively, on July 7, but they have shot up to 3,074 and 29 by Tuesday.