VIJAYAWADA: Amid concerns over new strains of coronavirus being the reason behind the recent spike in cases in many parts of the country, people in Vijayawada seemed to be taking the situation lightly and are openly disregarding the safety norms, especially in public places, put in place to check the spread of virus.
Though the places of worship are seeing a rush, the mandatory thermal screening of devotees in queue lines is not being done by the temple officials. Even at Vijayawada railway station, many passengers were seen not wearing masks or maintaining physical distance. The passengers were not asked to undergo thermal screening contrary to the random screening during the initial days of the pandemic. A similar scene was witnessed at Pandit Nehru Bus Station, which on an average handles 50,000 to one lakh passengers a day.
“Public address system is being used to make announcements asking the passengers to follow all Covid-19 norms. Sanitiser is also made available in the buses,” regional manager Vijayawada G Nagendra Prasad said. “At Vijayawada International Airport, we are screening all passengers arriving at the terminal from abroad and neighbouring States,” airport director G Madhusudana Rao told TNIE.
At present, the terminal is handling flyers from the Middle East reaching Vijayawada from New Delhi and Bengaluru. While the international passengers are being asked to undergo RT-PCR tests, only thermal screening is mandatory for others as there are no further guidelines from the State health department.
Meanwhile, the VMC collected `11 lakh as fines from Covid-19 violators between March 25 last year and February 25.
“As there is a vaccine available now, the civic body is not holding surprise checks. However, the public health department will start penalising the violators as there is a spike in cases,” said VMC public health official Obeswara Rao.