HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh Government will purchase 16 crore face masks and distribute it to all its residents.
The move has been initiated to ensure that every resident of the state, irrespective of his or her status, is protected from COVID-19.
The decision was taken in a review meeting held on Sunday by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Every person will be given three masks and the state will not tolerate any of its 5.3 crore residents moving out of the house without the mask.
Strict instructions have been issued to ensure that the required distribution be completed at the earliest.
Special Chief Secretary (Health) KS Jawahar Reddy has disclosed that the state has said a third round of door-to-door survey was being undertaken and so far 1.43 crore households, out of the total 1.47 crore, have been covered till Saturday.
The chief minister has also asked the health department to explore the possibility of testing all 32,349 cases so far put under suspicion.
So far only 9,107 have been recommended for testing. Abdhra Pradesh has so far seen 405 cases out of which 10 have recovered and six have died.
The Guntur district alone saw 17 new cases, all related to the Tablighi Jamaat attendees’ contacts, while Kurnool too had five more.
Kadapa and Prakasam districts reported one new case each.
Meanwhile, in neighbouring Telangana, videos have gone viral showing lathi-wielding Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) members on the outskirts of
Hyderabad checking the identity of commuters.
This has sparked a political row with the Congress questioning if the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) had outsourced the task to the RSS.
Many questions are being asked on Twitter to officials including the Director General of Police saying “Sir, Why are you silent on this issue of RSS workers with sticks manning police check post in Telangana, people are asking whether @TelanganaCOPs also outsourced to #RSS? Please break your silence”.
Some RSS leaders have said that its volunteers were helping the police for 12 hours.
Police Commissioner Mahesh Bahgwat, however, clarified that no permission was given to RSS volunteers to man the checkpoints.
Telangana has so far seen 503 cases out of which 96 have recovered and 14 have died so far.
Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao declared that all religious programmes and mass gatherings will be banned till April 30. No permissions will be given whatsoever, he asserted. The state government will allow only farm operations and food processing industries to operate.
Permissions will be granted to rice mills, oil mills, flour mills and other value-addition industries affiliated to agriculture.