Special surveillance to start in residential areas showing a rise in cases

Ghaziabad: Fresh Covid-19 cases have started to emerge in several residential clusters of Ghaziabad in March, according to data of the district health department

Ghaziabad: Fresh Covid-19 cases have started to emerge in several residential clusters of Ghaziabad in March, according to data of the district health department. Officials said that they have started with a plan to contain the spread of infection and that five surveillance teams will be deployed in each cluster showing increasing trend of positive cases.

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According to the data, Raj Nagar residential segment had nine Covid-19 cases in February, but has seen a spike with 38 cases till March 17. Likewise, Ghookhna near Delhi-Meerut Road stood with one case last month, but it has witnessed 16 new cases till March 17. In Sahibabad (II), there were five cases last month and the tally in the current month has gone up to eight till March 17.

The officials said that the cases have failed to decline in segment of Shastri Nagar which now has 32 cases as against 38 in February. They further said that Vaishali is also under scanner with 10 cases as against 14 last month.

“We have identified the five clusters in which we will deploy five surveillance teams to take up door-to-door surveillance and find out cases of influenza-like illness and severe acute respiratory illness, besides tracking other persons having comorbid conditions. This will help us detect early the suspected cases,” said Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer.

“For immediate testing, we have decided to deploy one mobile van each to these localities. These will be apart from the static testing booths,” Gupta added.

The officials said that the plan to deal with rising cases will also be put forward before the chief minister who will take up video conferencing of Covid preparedness on Thursday night.

According to the official records, trans-Hindon localities like Indirapuram and Vasundhara which were among the high incidence localities have started to show decline. The records indicate that there were 41 cases in Indirapuram last month while the fresh cases stood at 10 till March 17. In Vasundhara too, the cases were 20 last month and only seven in first 17 days of March.

On Thursday, district nodal officer Senthil Pandian C also took a review meeting and directed officials to take up enhanced testing of people coming from other states.

“The nodal officer has asked us to undertake testing outside the railway station. We have one booth which was working during the day. Now, we will have two booths on two exits of the station, and they will operate round-the-clock. Further, we have also decided to rope in two teams to track passengers at ISBT Kaushambi. They will be deployed during peak hours and will take up testing,” Gupta said.

District magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.

During the first 17 days of March, the district has conducted average of 2,035 tests per day while they conducted about 1,936 average tests per day during the same period in February. The district has a daily target of conducting 3,500 rapid antigen tests and 1,700 RT-PCR tests. The officials said that testing will also be expedited.