Last week, NITI Ayog's Amitabh Kant brought out a report of India's 27 high case load districts.  Kurnool and Guntur in Andhra Pradesh are two of them.  The picture, if anything, has only got worse since then in Kurnool, where the number stands at 292 as on Monday noon.  

Kurnool's YSRCP MP Sanjeev Kumar has confirmed that COVID-19 is in Stage-3 (Community Spread) in the town.  This came after six of his family members, four of them living in the upscale NR Peta, testing positive for novel coronavirus.  They didn't have any outside contact or travel history.  

The community transmission in Kurnool is a reality that its residents are grappling to come to terms with.  Containment clusters are in place.  Even medical shops are closed and the residents have had a tough time to source medicines online.

Police patrolling has been intensified in several areas.  The house owners of apartment complexes have been asked to keep their main doors shut for the whole day to discourage inmates from stepping out for non-essential reasons.

Ever since Dr. Ismail of KM Hospitals tested positive and died of COVID-19 earlier in April, Kurnool's residents have been gripped by a sense of fear and uncertainty, ground reports suggest.  Even main roads wear a deserted look.