Amid surge in Covid-19 cases in Delhi-NCR, authorities look for over 1,500 missing patients

The health authorities have asked the police to help trace these Covid-19 patients. Faridabad has the highest number of these cases, so the municipal authorities have also been roped in.

There is new problem at hand for health authorities in Delhi-NCR which is grappling with rapid rise in the number of coronavirus disease cases. More than 1,500 Covid-19 patients are missing in the region, according to Hindustan Times’ sister publication Hindustan.

A health care worker takes a swab sample for Covid-19 rapid testing at the MMG district hospital in Ghaziabad, on Saturday. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

The health authorities are not able to trace these 1,589 patients, the Hindustan reported. This happened because these people gave wrong address and mobile numbers while being tested for Covid-19, it further reported.

The highest number of these missing patients - 1,000 - is from Faridabad followed by 266 from Gurugram, 180 from Delhi, 124 from Ghaziabad and 19 from Noida.

The health authorities Hindustan spoke to said that a patient’s medical information is uploaded on the mobile application of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) before the sample is taken. The patient is then asked for mobile number and the data is uploaded only after an OTP (One-Time Password) is generated.

In these cases, the lapse happened because these people got themselves checked at private labs, when the pandemic was just about rearing its head in India.

The health authorities have asked the police to help trace these patients. The authorities say that they have found 65 missing Covid-19 patients in Ghaziabad and they have been admitted to the hospital.

In Faridabad, the municipal authorities have also been roped in to trace these missing patients.

Tightening the rules further, Faridabad’s civil surgeon Dr Randeep Singh Poonia told Hindustan that they have made Aadhar card, identity card and home address proof mandatory. The authorities have already issued order in this regard, he added.

Delhi, meanwhile, crossed the 3,000-mark in the number of Covid-19 fatalities after 55 deaths were recorded on Saturday. The number of deaths due to the viral infection stood at 3,004, according to the health bulletin released by the Delhi government, with 26 “old cases” added to the cumulative number.

Delhi had recorded its first death on March 13 - a 68-year-old woman from Janakpuri who got the infection from her son who had travelled to Switzerland, Japan, and Italy. From then, it took exactly two months for Delhi to record the first 100 deaths due to Covid-19.

On Saturday, the city recorded 2,505 new cases of Covid-19 taking the cumulative total to 97,200.