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Sealing of borders cuts Delhi-Ghaziabad traffic by almost half, say district police
The Ghaziabad police Wednesday said the traffic between Ghaziabad and Delhi has reduced by almost half after the borders were sealed Tuesday to contain spread of
The Ghaziabad police Wednesday said the traffic between Ghaziabad and Delhi has reduced by almost half after the borders were sealed Tuesday to contain spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
Ghaziabad district magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey had issued directions to seal the borders late Monday, under the provisions of the Disaster Management Act. The order prohibited any travel between Ghaziabad and the national capital, after the Ghaziabad health department submitted a report to Pandey stating that six persons contracted Covid-19 after visiting Delhi.
However, this statement has drawn sharp criticism from all quarters, especially after major chaos ensued at the Delhi-UP border on Tuesday morning and senior administration and police officers had to intervene in order to open the borders and allow passage to stranded commuters.
“On Wednesday, we saw a major decline in number of vehicles moving to Delhi. The reduction is about 40%. During the lockdown period, there was an estimated movement of about 4,000-5,000 vehicles from Ghaziabad to Delhi, which has now reduced. We have allowed vehicles carrying essential goods to move through the orders via a separate lane,” Manish Mishra, superintendent of police (city), said.
Meanwhile, the district health department said the six patients who visited Delhi and contracted infection included two doctors, a male staff nurse of a Delhi hospital residing in Ghaziabad and two patients who were getting treatment outside Ghaziabad.
“During the initial stage of the Covid-19 spread, most patients were related to a Noida-based company and later there were cases that were linked to a religious congregation in Delhi. In the present scenario, most positive cases are related to health care facilities. So we issued a communication to the district officials that in order to control such cases, we need to restrict cross-border movement of people,” Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer (CMO), Ghaziabad, said.
But residents are not buying this argument. “Patients have a right to take up treatment at facilities that they can afford or prefer. Likewise, doctors are also free to attend to patients even though they are at high risk of getting infected. One should not blame doctors for catching the infection while doing their duty. Sealing of borders was anyway on since the lockdown started,” VK Mittal, president of Kaushambi Apartments RWA, said.
Alok Kumar, founder member of Federation of Association of Apartment Owners, said patients have a right to take treatment at any hospital of their choice.
“In the case of the positive case from Exotica Elegance in Indirpauram on April 22, an ambulance of the district health department and another of a private hospital from Delhi had arrived at the society. However, the patient felt comfortable going to the private hospital in Delhi. Had there been proper health care facilities in Ghaziabad, patients would take up treatment here and not move to Delhi or Noida,” he said.
On Tuesday night, the district magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar also passed an order to seal the borders with Delhi as a precautionary measure. The order said many Covid-19 cases in the district had links to Delhi.
Officials of the Uttar Pradesh government have also maintained that the present Covid-19 cases are linked to health care facilities.
“So we have advised health care persons to mandatorily follow the infection prevention protocol,” Amit Mohan Prasad, principal secretary (health), I, Uttar Pradesh, said.
“The highest number of infected patients is in age group 21-40 years with overall share of 47.49%. These include 37.03% males and 10.46% females. The age group of 41-60 years has an overall share of 24.66% with 19.01% males and 5.65% females,” Prasad said.
He added that the age group 0-20 years had an overall share of 19.51% and included 15.48% males and 4.03% female patients. The age group of patients over 60 years accounted for 8.3% of total cases and the share of male and female patients stood at 7.28% and 1.06%, respectively, Prasad said.
