After making an unwelcome appearance
in Karminagar, the deadly Covid-19 virus has now gripped Telangana's famous tribal temple, the Medaram Sammakka-Sarakka shrine.
Three officials of the endowment department working at the temple tested positive for coronavirus yesterday (February 27).
Following this disturbing development, the concerned officials have decided to shut down the temple for 21 days.
What makes the incident frightening is the fact that the officials contracted the virus while they were on duty at the Sammakka-Sarakka shrine for the Mini-Medaram jatara (which began on February 24 and ended today) that drew a huge number of devotees to the shrine. One estimate pegs the number of devotees at at least 5 lakh.
Reports say that after the three officials tested positive, the health officials in the area are trying to identify the people who came in contact with the officials.
The state has been seeing a slight rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in the recent past - on Saturday, 178 new cases and one fatality were recorded. The number of active cases till yesterday stood at 1,939. The spike even prompted the Telangana High Court to
issue instructions to the TRS government to take immediate steps to prevent a second wave.