ONGOLE: Chicken and egg consumption in Prakasam district has decreased significantly during last few weeks due to the rumours that their consumption may lead to the spread of coronavirus. To give a boost to their businesses, some Ongole-based chicken shop owners are trying to perk up sales byh coming up with various schemes such as offering half-litre edible oil free of cost with the purchase of one kg chicken or one kg onion free of cost with one kg chicken to attract the customers.
However, due to the rumours chicken prices have hit a low of Rs 75 to Rs 80 per kg. In spite of crashing prices, there were hardly any takers of chicken.As the rumours have been impacting the livelihood of poultry and chicken shop owners, district collector Dr Pola Bhaskar made an attempt to clear the rumours concerning the egg and chicken consumption. He invited several officials and mediapersons for a feast on Sunday and consumed chicken.
On the other hand, district authorities have been taking precautionary measures to control the spread of COVID-19. As per the instructions received from the central and the State governments, the district authorities are making arrangements to tackle any emergency situation.
If any person gets identified as a COVID-19 positive, the district authorities will put him or her under 24-hour medical observation at isolation wards for 14 to 28 days duration, depending upon the intensity.
They will deploy a team of medical staff, with a senior officer as the team supervisor to create awareness and check that anyone of the victims family or associates or anyone from that particular area where the victim stays has developed symptoms or not.
It has been learnt that within a radius of 3 km, a team of medical staff will be deployed with four members and a supervisor for every 30 houses.
As part of checking the spread of coronavirus, the district authorities have also decided to issue a ‘No COVID-19 Certificate’ to all the persons, who have come to the district recently and seek to return to foreign countries.
In this connection, district medical health department additional director Dr Vasantha said each and every person, who came from foreign countries, in particular from those countries affected with COVID-19 to get the certificate, without which they would not be allowed to board the flight.
“We have already collected all details of the 154 air passengers, who came from various foreign countries recently (read after February 10). All the foreign returnees to the district should remember that until and unless they all get the ‘No COVID-19’ certificate issued by the district medical officer (DMO) it would be impossible to get a seat in the flights and we appeal to all the foreign returned people from the district to undergo COVID-19 screening tests for coronavirus,” Dr Vasantha said.