UP CM directs health officials in Noida, Ghaziabad to be on ‘alert mode’

According to official records, UP has 507 active cases on Saturday and these include 218 in Gautam Budh Nagar and 90 in Ghaziabad alone. Together, the two districts account for 60.74% of active caseload in the state

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday directed health department officials to be on “alert mode” in the National Capital Region (NCR) districts, where Covid-19 cases are on an upward spiral.

A health worker collects a swab sample for Covid-19 test at the District Hospital at Sector 30 in Noida on Saturday. (Sunil Ghosh/ HT)

Adityanath also directed officials to undertake genome-sequencing of all positive patients in both Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad districts.

According to official records, UP has 507 active cases on Saturday and these include 218 in Gautam Budh Nagar and 90 in Ghaziabad alone. Together, the two districts account for 60.74% of active caseload in the state.

The rise in cases in the two districts has caused alarm as the infection has also spread to students and teachers in some schools.

The directions came after a Covid-19 review meeting in state capital Lucknow and they were also tweeted from the official account of the chief minister.

“In view of the rise in cases and also spread of infection in schools, we have already taken up genome sequencing measures and so far, 200 samples have been collected. These include mandatory samples for positive cases and also for suspected cases. It is important to find out the prevalent variant so that we can stop the spread. We are taking up mandatory genome sequencing of all positive cases,” said Dr Sunil Tyagi, additional chief medical officer, Ghaziabad district.

Dr Tyagi said that the district health department has also put up 560 beds as a standby measure in case there are immediate requirements.

“Dedicated Covid-19 beds have been put on standby at Santosh Medical College (400), Sanjay Nagar Combined District Hospital (100) and another 20 beds at a private hospital in Vaishali. All the four community health centres have also been asked to put 10 beds on a standby. At present, all our active cases are under home isolation. Further, we have asked schools to strictly follow Covid-19 protocols and our teams will also conduct surprise inspections,” Dr Tyagi added.

The official records indicate that four teachers and 22 students of 14 schools have tested positive till Saturday.

According to official records, the district also reported 17 fresh cases on Saturday, which has taken the tally of active cases to 90. A total of 126 cases have emerged so far in the month of April as compared to 27,052 in January, 1,700 in February and 195 in March.

Meanwhile, the health department officials at Gautam Budh Nagar district, said that on April 14, the health department sent 64 samples for genome-sequencing.

“A state-level meeting was held and it was discussed that the number of cases has definitely increased in Noida and Ghaziabad. This is because these two cities are the gateways of the state, with direct links to Delhi, where cases also are on the rise. On April 14, we sent all samples with a CT (cycle threshold) value less than 30 for genome-sequencing,” said Dr Sunil Sharma, chief medical officer.

CT value refers to the number of cycles needed for the virus to reach a detectable stage — the lower the CT value, the higher the infection or viral load. So, samples with lower CT value are sent for genome-sequencing, health department officials said.

The health experts said that genome-sequencing is a must in order to find out the type of variant which is in prevalence.

“The genome-sequencing will help in detecting the variant and we can take appropriate measures. It is also mandatory to strictly adhere to all Covid protocols and people should take up vaccination at the earliest. The good news is that the severity of the infection is still low,” said Dr Ashish Aggarwal, former president of the Indian Medical Association’s (IMA), Ghaziabad chapter.