Covid-19: Greater Noida authority intensifies sanitisation drives in villages

The Greater Noida authority on Thursday said it has intensified sanitisation drives in villages after a woman tested positive for Covid-19 in Patwari village on

The Greater Noida authority on Thursday said it has intensified sanitisation drives in villages after a woman tested positive for Covid-19 in Patwari village on Wednesday.

An aerial view of people queuing to collect on day nine of the 21-day nationwide lockdown to check the spread of coronavirus, near Sector 5, in Noida on Thursday, April 02, 2020. (Photo by Sunil Ghosh / Hindustan Times)

The authority has been disinfecting public places such as markets, government offices including its administrative building (in Sector Knowledge Park 4), hotels, footpaths and other common areas in group housings and urban areas since March 17. It had earlier disinfected some villages adjoining urban areas but has now intensified sanitisation drives in all public spaces in villages after a woman was detected positive for the infection in Patwari village in Greater Noida West.

“We are disinfecting all public spaces such as banks, markets, and other spaces. The motive is to ensure that Covid-19 does not spread further is and contained properly,” Narendra Bhooshan, chief executive officer, Greater Noida authority said.

A 30-year-old woman who worked as a domestic help in Greater Noida’s Sector 2 group housing tested positive for Covid-19. She contracted the infection from a Covid-19 positive patient whose house she worked at. This is the first case detected in a village, officials said. As of Thursday evening, Gautam Budh Nagar district has 48 confirmed cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) out of which 6 persons have recovered and discharged.

The officials fear that if Covid -19 spreads in rural areas then containing it will not be easy in comparison to urban areas, where people live in nuclear families, said officials. In villages, people live in joint families and every village is densely populated and an outbreak will throw a lot of challenges before the authorities, they added.

The authority has so far disinfected villages such as Patwari, Kanarsi, Bal Ki Madiyan, Visayach, Patla, Haibatpur, Gharbara, Kulipura, Malakpur, Chhachula, Shahberi, Sadopur, Manikpur, Jaitpur, and Milak. There are a total 124 villages in Greater Noida’s jurisdiction and the authority wants to disinfect all of them at the earliest, said officials.

“We are mixing sodium hypochlorite in water, filling it in fire tenders, and then sprinkling it at public spaces. Earlier we were using only water tankers. But now we have started using fire tenders to finish the job in less time,” a Greater Noida authority official said.

The Greater Noida authority has also appealed to people to come together to distribute essential services to those lost access to food and essential supplies amid the lockdown and are living at construction sites, slums.

To provide food to daily-wage labourers and construction workers, the authority has already started a “hunger line” at 8595567809. Any construction labourer or dependent who is living in the city and does not have access to food can call the helpline and seek help.