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Gurugram’s Covid-19 cases with links to Delhi clustered in crowded areas of the city, says report
Gurugram: As a part of the contact tracing of coronavirus (Covid-19) disease patients to curb its spread, the district health department has found that at least
Gurugram: As a part of the contact tracing of coronavirus (Covid-19) disease patients to curb its spread, the district health department has found that at least 100 patients had links to Delhi, adding that most of these 100 are clustered in Dundahera, Khandsa and Jyoti Park.
A report prepared by the health department on May 23, when the coronavirus tally in the city was 262, shows that a single patient who was infected with the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the coronavirus disease, in Delhi, transmitted the contagious virus to about five to 15 people in Gurugram.
“After the ease in lockdown rules, the spill-over of infections from Delhi is likely to increase. We are collating data to review the situation. The purpose of the report is to study the contact tracing of cases so far and to find Covid-19 clusters where transmission could be prevented,” said Dr Jaswant Singh Punia, chief medical officer (CMO).
In the last week of April, the Haryana government had closed the Delhi-Gurugram border to prevent movement of people to and from Delhi to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease. The borders are not yet unsealed and only those with valid movement passes are allowed. In peak hours, to avoid traffic congestion, employees and workers coming from Delhi are, however, allowed to cross the border without any pass.
The report, accessed by HT, shows that the first patient having links with Delhi was detected in March, after the wife of a Covid-19 patient in Nirvana Country had tested positive. The husband was admitted to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi. Then, at least 17 people in Gurugram, who attended a Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Nizamuddin Delhi mid-March, had tested positive for Covid-19.
A case was reported from Dundahera when a man had contracted the virus at Ram Manohar Lohia hospital in Delhi after he had to take his epileptic son there for treatment. The man returned to Gurugram on April 22 for a day while his son was undergoing treatment in Delhi. He got himself tested in Delhi before he came to Gurugram and returned to Delhi the next day. On April 25, he was confirmed for Covid-19 and was admitted to AIIMS, Jhajjar.
Doctors in Delhi had then informed the Gurugram health team about the case. “When the team collected samples, three of them had tested Covid-19 positive,” said Punia.
“Later, five people living in the same building where the man had visited were found coronavirus-positive. One among the five transmitted the virus to four other people. They further infected over five people,” he said. As per the report, one of them is a tailor in an export company.
“It was found that more than 40 were living in the same building and one positive case transmitted the virus to at least 15 people,” said Punia, adding that all were put under institutional quarantine to prevent the virus’ spread. Notably, Dundahera shares a border with Delhi.
Likewise, in Jyoti Park, a young man, who worked for a referral ambulance service in Delhi, also tested positive. Before his reports confirming the same, though, the man had already transmitted the infection to at least eight people, including three health staff members of a private hospital where he had gone for a health checkup.
On May 4, at least nine cases were traced to Gurugram’s Khandsa mandi, the vegetable market. Of these, seven had links with Delhi’s Azadpur Mandi while two dealers had contacts with people in Nasik and West Bengal. But as the district health department increased surveillance, they found that at least 20 people had already contracted the coronavirus from Azadpur mandi.
Other affected cases with links to Delhi are based in Sirhol, Palam Vihar, Sector 10A, Jawahar Nagar and Sector 53, the report adds.
Gurugram deputy commissioner Amit Khatri did not offer a comment over the issue
