Gurugram: Urban villages, residential colonies emerge as Covid hot spots
Gurugram:
Gurugram:

Some of the city’s urban villages and residential colonies on both sides of the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway are emerging as Covid-19 hot spots, shows the data collected by the contact tracing team of the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP).
According to the data, in the last one week, urban villages such as Nathupur, Wazirabad, Tigra, Sukhrali, Mollahera, Dundahera, Naharpur Rupa, Chakkarpur and Manesar have witnessed a sudden spike in the Covid-19 cases. Among the urban colonies in the city, many new positive cases were reported from Chanderlok, Laxman Vihar, Om Nagar, Feroze Gandhi colony and Patel Nagar.
The total Covid-19 cases in Gurugram till Saturday evening were 3,125, and the number has been rising for the past 10 days.
The 25-member HSVP team started collecting data related to Covid patients since last Saturday after a reshuffle of officials was carried out by the district administration to manage the Covid-19 situation.
Officials said that high density of population and resumption commercial activities in these urban clusters was the reason behind the rise in Covid-19 cases.
On Friday The Gurugram health department had said that seven clusters that include Firoz Gandhi colony, Wazirabad, Lakshman Vihar, Chandelrok, Dundahera, Chakkarpur, and Gandhi Nagar have almost half of the Covid-19 positive cases in the city. The seven areas identified by the health department reported 1,600 cases till Saturday evening, said health officials.
The HSVP team said that they were actively working with 36 primary health centres (PHCs) and rapid response teams in urban areas and sharing the information with the health department and the district administration.
“We are gathering details of the Covid-19 patients and the data is updated on a mobile application, which ensures that information is shared on real-time basis and there is no duplication,” said Bharat Bhushan Gogia, HSVP’s estate officer one, who is the coordinating official for the data collecting work.
A team member involved in the data collection said that they also check whether the patient has Covid-19 symptoms like fever, difficulty in breathing, and dry cough. “We collect these details from the PHCs in a single format and upload it online so that it is accessible to departments concerned,” he said.
When asked what measures are being taken to prevent the spread of Covid-19 cases in the high risk areas, Gogia said that all of these had been turned into containment zones by the district administration. “The containment zones, which are under our supervision, are being monitored strictly. We are actively coordinating with the police officials deployed in these zones and a log book for entry of people is also being maintained,” he said.
Meanwhile, the health department officials said that priority is being given to the high risk clusters and they plan to ramp up testing in these areas so that Covid affected persons are identified at the earliest.
Virender Yadav, civil surgeon, Gurugram, said that the entire focus will be on the identified clusters in the coming weeks to prevent the spread of coronavirus. “Awareness campaign will be carried out on a large scale to send home the message of safety and prevention. Also, focus would be on ensuring strict home isolation and quarantine. A meeting of officials has been called on Monday in this regard. We will also increase Covid testing in these areas,” said Yadav.
ABOUT THE AUTHORAbhishek BehlAbhishek Behl is principal correspondent, Hindustan Times in Gurgaon Bureau. He covers infrastructure, planning and civic agencies in the city. He has been covering Gurgaon as correspondent for the last 10 years, and has written extensively on the city.Read More

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