Postman turns super spreader, 110 pensioners of Wanaparthy's village test COVID +Ve

Wanaparthy: More than 110 people of Chinnambavi village in Wanaparthy district, Telangana, tested positive in the last six days after all of them visited the post office for collecting their monthly pension. According to the officials, the postman who was distributing the pension was the first to get infected with Covid-19 and had not got himself tested even after he was having symptoms of fever and cough.

The Chinnambavi village, which has a population of more than 2,500 people, has seen a sudden spike in the number of Covid-19 positive cases this week. Upon investigating, the health officials found that all the people who were infected were senior citizens and widows, who had directly come in contact with postman Venkatesh, when they went to collect their pension.

Speaking to NewsMeter, tahsildar of Chinnambavi, Shanthilal said, "Over 110 people were identified to be infected with the virus as of now, all of them have been identified and placed in isolation. The local gram panchayat is taking good care by providing all patients with proper diet free of cost."

"The whole village is on high alert and anybody with any symptom is being tested every day for the last six days. We have converted the government school into an isolation centre. People who were infected have been isolated from their families. Others whose condition is severe have been shifted to the government hospital. All the officials including the MRO, tahsildar, Mandal Parishad Development Officer, are are at the village and monitoring the situation and measures taken to check the spread of the disease. Most of the infected people are asymptomatic," added Surender Singh, sarpanch, Chinnambavi.

The postman who was infected is suspected to have contracted the virus from his brother, an RMP doctor at Wanaparthy.

Meanwhile,Telangana reported 2,795 new COVID cases on Wednesday taking the overall tally to 1,14,483 in the state.

Eight new deaths are reported on August 26 taking the total tally to 788. The fatality rate in the state is 0.68 per cent which is less than the national average of 1.84 per cent.

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation area reported 449 new cases while Rangareddy reported 268 new cases. Districts of Telangana is seeing the increase in cases. Nalgonda reported 164 new cases while Khammam reported 152 cases.

Around 872 citizens recovered from the infection on Wednesday taking the tally of total recoveries to 86,095. The recovery rate, as per the government now stands at 75.2 per cent, which is approximately one per cent less than the national average of 76.28 per cent.

The state currently has 27,600 active cases.