'Bored' truck driver plays cards with friends, leads to 24 getting COVID-19

Amaravati: A bored truck driver’s effort to kill time by indulging in a game of cards with friends and neighbors led to the infection of coronavirus in 24 people in one locality of Vijayawada city in Andhra Pradesh, Krishna district Collector A Md Imtiaz said here on Saturday.

A social grouping for whiling away time by another truck driver resulted in the virus affliction to about 15 people in another locality in Vijayawada.

“These two instances accounted for about 40 cases in the city in the last couple of days,” he said.

The truck driver in Krishna Lanka locality was bored and played cards with his friends and neighbors while the women grouped up and played tambola.

“All this resulted in the spread of the dreaded virus in 24 people,” he said.

“The same thing happened in Karmika Nagar. The truck driver moved around socializing and in the process, about 15 people got afflicted,” Imtiaz added.

“Failure to maintain physical distance was the sole cause for the transmission of the coronavirus in these cases,” he said in a recorded video message.

Vijayawada is one of the major hotspots of coronavirus in the state where over 100 cases have been registered so far.

In the last 24 hours alone 25 fresh cases were reported in the city, which is part of the state capital Amaravati.

The Collector appealed to people to strictly maintain physical distance to avoid the infection.