E-Paper
Only 19 containment zones in GB Nagar now, lowest since April
Noida With the second wave of Covid-19 infections on the decline, the number of containment zones in Gautam Budh Nagar is now only 19, according to official data till July 25
Noida With the second wave of Covid-19 infections on the decline, the number of containment zones in Gautam Budh Nagar is now only 19, according to official data till July 25. This is the lowest since April when the infections climbed and at one point, the district had over 300 containment zones.
A containment zone is an area within a 25-metre radius of a confirmed infection. In case there are two or more confirmed cases, the radius is increased to 50 metres. Movement of people is highly restricted in these zones.
The 19 containment zones in the district include 13 high rise societies across Noida and Greater Noida.
“For high-rises, the state government guidelines say that in case of one Covid-19 case, the entire floor will be contained, while the entire tower will be contained if multiple cases are detected,” said a district health department official on condition of anonymity.
“The surveillance teams inform the local bodies like the residents welfare associations (RWAs) about positive cases and take their help in tracing and testing people in the community,” said Dr Jevr Ubaid, nodal officer for containment zones at district health department, GB Nagar.
The guidelines allow an area to be taken off the containment zone list if no new cases are reported from there for 14 days after the last confirmed report.
Despite the low case count — the district has been reporting less than 10 cases a day since June 20 — Gautam Budh Nagar chief medical officer (CMO) Dr Sunil Kumar Sharma said there is no let-up in testing, tracking and tracing of infected persons.
“We have 800 teams surveying 6,000 homes and around 23,000 people per day. On July 23, 74 people were found to be symptomatic who were then tested for Covid-19,” said Sharma.Covid-19 symptoms include fever, dry cough and tiredness. “We are testing around 4,000 samples a day, of which around 1,500 are RT-PCR tests and around 2,500 are antigen tests. The positivity rate (number of tests returning positive) is around 0.06%.”
On Monday, Gautam Budh Nagar reported three Covid-19 infections, bringing the active caseload to 36. Cumulative confirmed case count in the district was at 62,688 and the death toll at 466.
