Ghaziabad: Testing suffers due to weekend restrictions

On the first day of the weekend restrictions imposed by the UP government, the Ghaziabad police on Saturday said that the city roads wore a deserted look while the

On the first day of the weekend restrictions imposed by the UP government, the Ghaziabad police on Saturday said that the city roads wore a deserted look while the restrictions at the borders with Delhi continued.

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However, officials of the health department said that the testing activities suffered on account of the two-day lockdown.

The UP government on Thursday had announced the lockdown which started at 10pm on Friday and will continue till 5am on Monday.

“Due to restrictions announced by the government, the traffic on the roads was minimal. There was intensive checking by the police at the borders while barricades were put up on all major roads like done previously during the nationwide lockdown period. Those not wearing masks or moving around without any valid pass were challaned,” said Manish Mishra, superintendent of police (city).

According to the police, about 770 challans were issued to different persons for not wearing mask on roads.

“At the borders, we allowed only those persons who had valid identity cards/passes or were engaged in essential services. The movement to Delhi was also restricted as July 11 being a second Saturday,” Mishra added.

Meanwhile, the health officials said that only 1,104 samples were taken for Covid-19 test on Saturday during the ongoing drive due to the weekend restrictions. The sampling drive will end on July 12.

“This is because the residents did not come out to our camps for testing due to restrictions in place. On Saturday, we could collect only 1,104 samples for Covid test. Generally, we are doing about 3,000 tests per day at present,” said Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer.

The state government during the restriction period had also asked the local authorities to take up sanitization in different areas in order to prevent Covid-19 spread.

“As many as 10 fire tenders were deployed in two shifts of four hours each for spraying of sodium hypochlorite in different areas. We covered 255 areas, including highrise buildings, major markets and public places like railway stations, bus stands, auto stands, etc. On Sunday, we have plans to cover areas of containment zones,” said Sunil Kumar Singh, chief fire officer.

In his order issued for weekend restrictions, the UP government on Thursday had stated that all offices, urban and rural haats, markets, grain markets, and commercial establishments will remain closed. All essential services, however, will stay open as before and there will be no restriction on movements of people delivering such services.

The government, in a revised order on Friday, had directed that all the industrial units in urban and rural areas will continue to function.