The large-scale outbreak of Covid-19 cases in Chennai’s Koyambedu vegetable and fruit market early this week has led to a sudden spike in the number of Covid-19 positive cases in the border areas of Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh.
The largest vegetable and fruit market in Chennai, Koyambedu made headlines by accounting for nearly 400 out of the 527 positive cases that were reported on a single day on Monday. Most of the cases are that of workers and vegetable sellers at the market.
The incident kept the officials of Chittoor district on high alert as hundreds of farmers and workers from the border villages go to Koyambedu to sell vegetables. In the last two days, as many as 14 positive cases were reported from Chittoor district, including 11 cases in the last 24 hours and a majority of them have emerged from the areas having trade links with the Chennai market.
“Koyambedu market is the only source of vegetable trading for the farmers of border areas of Chittoor. In fact, it is the biggest market in South India. Every day, a large number of farmers from Palamaneru, Madanapalle, Satyavedu and Kuppam have been regularly going to Koyambedu to sell vegetables during the lockdown,” Chittoor district collector Dr N Bharat Gupta told Hindustan Times.
He said tomato is the main vegetable grown by the farmers of Chittoor district and they had been carrying it to the Koyambedu market. “Since there are no restrictions on movement of essential commodities during the lockdown, every day, hundreds of vehicles carrying vegetables were plying between Chittoor and Chennai,” the collector said.
Following reports of the sudden outbreak of cases in Koyambedu, the Chittoor district authorities stopped transportation of vegetables from V Kota, Patrapalle, Mulakalacheruvu and Madanapalli and other areas bordering Tamil Nadu.
“The Koyambedu market was shut down three days ago. So, there is no movement of vehicles. We have started screening of all the villages from where vegetables were transported to Koyambedu. We have also appealed to the people to come forward voluntarily to undergo tests. We are expecting to assess the magnitude of the Koyambedu impact in a day or two,” Gupta said.
The fresh cases that were reported from Chittoor emerged from villages like V Kota, Mulakalacheruvu, Madanapalle, Satyavedu, and Varadaiahpalem areas.
The district police also formed special teams to identify people having trade links with the Koyambedu market and appealed to the people to undergo voluntary testing so that the virus would not spread to others.
Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh continues to record a large number of Covid-19 positive cases. On Saturday, three more deaths and 43 positive cases were reported in the state, taking the total toll due to coronavirus to 44 and the cumulative number of positive cases to 1930.
Of the three deaths, Krishna district accounted for two and Kurnool one death. Both the districts have registered the highest number of deaths in the state so far – 13 and 15 respectively.
Kurnool with 553 positive cases continues to top the list, followed by Guntur with 376 cases and Krishna with 338 positive cases. In all, 887 patients were discharged after recovery, an official bulletin said.
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