The district health department has requested the administration to shift the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) patients, brought to Ghaziabad under the Vande Bharat Mission, to their respective hometowns. The officials said that two travellers lodged in paid quarantine have tested positive and should be sent to their respective districts for further treatment.
“The two travellers have tested positive and are lodged at ESI Hospital in Sahibabad. These cases have been added to the tally of Ghaziabad district by the state surveillance control room and are inflating our figures. Apart from them, there are seven more cases from other districts that have been added to the tally of Ghaziabad district,” the district’s chief medical officer (CMO) Dr NK Gupta, said.
“The different parameters (like the number, sampling rate, doubling rate, fatality rate and testing ratio) of active cases will be affected if we do not rectify the figures. So, we have asked the administration to send the travellers back to their home districts and also written to the state surveillance officials to rectify the tally of Ghaziabad district,” the CMO added.
He said that the total number of Covid-19 cases in the district stood at 227 with the addition of 10 new cases on Sunday. He added that 193 persons were discharged so far and the number of active cases stood at 33.
{{/usCountry}}He said that the total number of Covid-19 cases in the district stood at 227 with the addition of 10 new cases on Sunday. He added that 193 persons were discharged so far and the number of active cases stood at 33.
{{/usCountry}}“Four of the 10 cases reported on Sunday are contacts of two employees of Zee media. Two other women reported positive had given birth at a women’s hospital, where they were tested. Apart from the, there are two cases from Vasundhara and one each from Nehru Nagar and Patel Nagar,” the CMO added.
“We have received the rectification request from the Ghaziabad officials and the cases will soon be transferred to other districts,” Dr Vikasendu Agrawal, the state surveillance officer, said.
Under the Vande Bharat Mission, 502 travellers, all from Uttar Pradesh districts, are currently in paid quarantine at hotels in Ghaziabad.
“These people have travelled from different cities and countries like the US, Singapore, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Sharjah, Nepal and Dubai, among others. We are making arrangements for their transfer to their hometowns; so far, 32 of them have already been sent home after completed the requisite 14-day quarantine. The process will also be taken up for positive patients,” said PN Dixit, the project director of the district rural development authority who is coordinating with the travellers.
App-based e-rickshaws soon
Officials of the district administration also added that since offices are reopening under the norms of Lockdown 4.0, there is a need to cater to passengers who use public transport. As part of one of the measures, they are in talks with e-rickshaw manufactures and have asked them to initiate an app-based e-rickshaw service in Ghaziabad.
“We are also trying to operate 20 app-based e-rickshaws on two routes—Mohan Nagar to Hapur Chungi and Kaushambi to Sahibabad. We have asked the regional transport officer to give a plan for the proposed operations. Such e-rickshaws will cater to a maximum of two passengers besides the driver under the norms of Lockdown 4.0,” the district magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey said in a statement on Sunday.
In recent directions under the Lockdown 4.0, the district magistrate had allowed three-wheelers to ply with a maximum of two passengers and a driver.
Civil flights from Hindon
Meanwhile, officials of the district administration said that flights would start operating from the civil terminal at Hindon airbase likely from May 25 and all standard operating procedures (SOPs) were in place before the flights start at 4.45pm on Monday.
In this context, officials of the UP government said that they have issued a government order detailing the SOPs as the flights will be made operational from May 25.
“The government has issued the order. The passengers coming to UP will have to register themselves through a web link. People who belong to UP will have to quarantine themselves at home for 14 days and get themselves tested after six days. If their test is negative, they can leave quarantine. There will be no quarantine for persons from UP who travel to and from another state for work. However, their travel to UP has to be short and last less than a week. They have to disclose all their details, place of stay and work, etc. to authorities,” Amit Mohan Prasad, UP’s principal secretary (health), said.
The officials said that there are 2,686 people in isolation wards in the state and 10,540 in quarantine facilities at present.
“We are especially focussed on contacting migrant workers; so far we have contacted 807,147 of them. Of them, 873 are symptomatic and their testing is underway. We are also laying special emphasis on the containment exercise and 90,408 of our teams have so far surveyed 7,157,288 houses with a population of 3.58 crore living in them,” Prasad added.
According to officials, an area with a 250-metre radius around where a single case is found is now under surveillance, while an area with 500-metre radius from a cluster of cases is defined as a containment zone.