Haryana: Intensive surveillance in urban slums of 5 districts to contain Covid-19 spread

Gurugram:

Gurugram:

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In a bid to control the spread of coronavirus in the highly affected districts of Haryana -- Gurugram, Faridabad, Jhajjar, Panipat and Sonepat – the state health department has initiated intensive surveillance in the urban slums of these districts.

Going by the government data, Jhajjar slums have reported the maximum number of Covid-19 cases at 75 (total cases 90), followed by Faridabad which has seen 34 positive cases (total cases 144) from these areas. While not a single Covid-19 case (total cases 193) has been reported from Gurugram slums, 14 people in Panipat (total cases 36) and four in Sonepat (total cases 134) slums have tested positive for the deadly virus.

Interestingly, Gurugram has the highest population of 1.1 million residing in the urban slums, according to the data shared by the state health department.

According to health officials, about 500 health workers have screened at least one million people from March onwards through door-to-door surveillance in the urban slums of Gurugram and found 3,000 people with influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory illness (SARI).

Of the 3,000 people, samples of at least 459 have been collected for reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test and 363 for antibody test using rapid testing kits (RTKs). The data shows that 193 Covid-19 cases have been reported in Gurugram till now, but none of them is from urban slums.

Faridabad has a population of more than one million in urban slums.

The officials said that mostly ASHA and auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM) workers, who are doing surveillance in slums, are also focusing on immunization programme of children and pre/post-natal care of women.

Rajeev Arora, additional chief secretary, health department, said that the focus is on densely populated clusters in urban areas to prevent the contagious disease from spreading.

“All across the country, Covid-19 cases are being reported from the urban areas. Gurugram and Faridabad are highly urbanized with a large population living in urban slums. They are mostly domestic helps, workers and drivers, who work in different parts of the city.”

“Their intensive screening and testing is crucial to prevent spread of Covid-19 cases in districts where cases are increasing,” said Arora.

According to him, the surveillance has increased considering positive cases from urban slums could increase as these are highly congested areas where maintaining social distance is quite difficult.

The health officials said that the state has initially witnessed a wave of coronavirus cases with a travel history. Later, cases related to attendees of Tablighi Jamaat came in and of late people with links to Delhi were found Covid-19 positive.

In Gurugram’s Khandsa mandi, at least 25 people were found positive who had direct or indirect links to the national capital’s Azadpur mandi, a Covid-19 hot spot. Likewise, it affected Jhajjar, Sonepat, Panipat and Faridabad.

“It is the third round of surveillance in urban slums to identify potential Covid-19 cases to break the chain of transmission. We have been doing random sampling in affected areas targeting different population group to trace cases,” Arora said, adding that despite surge in the number of positive cases, none of the districts from Haryana is among the 30 worst-affected districts across the country.

On Saturday, the Union ministry of health and family welfare held a meeting with senior officials from the 30 municipal areas which are contributing at least 80% of the country’s Covid -19 cases. These areas are in states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Odisha.

“None of our districts are as badly affected as Indore, Ahmedabad or Mumbai. Timely tracing and testing of cases has helped us,” said Arora.