Ghaziabad starts mega drive for early detection of ILI and SARI cases in non-containment areas

Ghaziabad: In a bid to enhance surveillance activities in non-containment areas and also to detect influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory illness

Ghaziabad: In a bid to enhance surveillance activities in non-containment areas and also to detect influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) cases early, the district administration has roped in more than 3,000 block level employees who will carry out house-to-house survey on the basis of the voters’ list. Also, 237 district administration officials have been deployed to supervise the survey, officials said on Monday.

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The officials said that it is for the first time that the activity of such a large scale has been taken up in the district in order to contain the rising Covid-19 cases. The strategy has been formulated in order to pre-empt the suspicious cases and bring them to health care facilities for early treatment, they said.

“Taking help of voters’ list, the teams will conduct survey of residents having health complications or having ILI and SARI symptoms in their respective areas. They have been given prescribed form to note down details of people who are having symptoms. The teams will spread awareness and also have been tasked to find out suspicious cases and inform senior officials who will bring such cases to health care facilities,” said Ajay Shankar Pandey, district magistrate, Ghaziabad.

The decision has been taken up in the wake of recent visit of two state government-appointed nodal officers who had also vouched for increased surveillance activities and early detection of ILI and SARI cases.

Ghaziabad has been battling with rising number of Covid-19 cases. Of total 46 Covid-related deaths till June 21, about 42 fatalities have taken place since June 1 in the district.

The officials of the district health department said that due to delay in detection of ILI and SARI cases, many Covid-19 cases met with fatalities. The total number of Covid-19 cases stood at 918 till June 21.

“Such exercise will also be initiated soon for containment areas with bigger number of teams, which we will draw out from the immunization programme. A work plan for this will be chalked out soon,” Pandey added.

Amit Mohan Prasad, UP’s principal secretary (health), has also stressed on new improved surveillance activities and said that four teams are proposed to be deployed in category 1 containment zones and 16 teams for category 2 containment zones. “The detailed protocol for the work plan is being chalked out. This will help us detect suspicious cases and prevent any complications in patients,” Prasad said.

In Ghaziabad, there are 244 category 1 containment zones and another set of 35 category 2 zones, according to the latest list of June 18 issued by the district authorities. With the proposed work plan for enhanced surveillance in the containment zones, 976 teams would be required for category 1 zones and 560 for category 2, the officials said.

At present, the health department is having 260 teams engaged in surveillance activities in containment zones.

“We will be drawing out more teams for the purpose and total strength of our teams is likely to go up to 400,” said Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer.

The areas where containment zones have increased are in Indirapuram, Vasundhara, Khoda and Vaishali, among others.

Till May 30, the district had 65 category 1 containment zones and only seven category 2 zones.

Meanwhile, state officials said that the chief minister has directed for formation of one lakh teams for finding out suspicious cases with the help of surveillance.

“The CM has said that every household should be covered geographically. Covid help desks should come up at every government office -- at block level, tehsil level, police stations, district hospitals -- and at primary health centres and community health centres. We are also aiming for 25,000 tests per day. The new antigen testing will also be implemented soon,” said Awanish Awasthi, UP’s additional chief secretary (home).

The state officials said that it is being taken up initially in five cities of Lucknow, Prayagraj, Gorakhpur, Varanasi and Kanpur City, and will be implemented in NCR areas of western Uttar Pradesh in the next phase.

The antigen tests are presently prevalent in the national capital. The tests are quicker than the laboratory-based RT-PCR tests and also cheaper. The test also differs in technology as it looks for specific protein associated with Sars-Cov-2 virus, the pathogen that causes Covid-19. The lab tests, on the other hand, look for the exact nucleic signatures of the virus.