District admin sets up Covid care centres for asymptomatic patients in Nuh

The district administration and health department of Nuh, on Sunday, designated four institutions as Covid care establishments for treatment of asymptomatic patients.

The district administration and health department of Nuh, on Sunday, designated four institutions as Covid care establishments for treatment of asymptomatic patients. This comes after five people in the region tested positive for coronavirus disease (Covid-19). After a 31-year-old truck driver tested positive for the virus, four of his neighbours also tested positive on Sunday morning, said officials. With this, the total number of positive cases in the district has reached 65.

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After the five people were tested positive from Raniyala Patakpur village of Pingwan block, the district administration sealed all the entry and exit gates and deployed more than 50 police personnel at the spot.

Virender Yadav, chief medical officer (CMO), Nuh, said the 31-year-old man who tested positive is a truck driver and had travelled to Bhiwadi. Due to the ongoing lockdown, he could not get regular work and he visited his relatives, friends and neighbour in search of work, from where he caught the infection. “Five of the cases, including the driver, are asymptomatic in nature and they have been shifted to Covid care setups in Nuh,” he said.

“We along with the police and the district administration visited Raniyala Patakpur village and requested people not to hide their travel history and told the sarpanch to ensure that all close contacts of Covid-positive patients to remain under quarantine for 14 days,” CMO Yadav said.

“We have also converted the Industrial Training Institute (ITI) buildings of Pingwan, Malabh and Indri as Covid care centres after all members of the Tablighi Jamaat were discharged. Aravalli school in Ferozepur Zirka was designated as the fourth Covid care centre in the district. Starting Sunday, we have decided to shift all the asymptomatic cases for treatment in these centres,” Vikram, deputy commissioner of Nuh.

Three more institutions will be converted into Covid care centres at Salaheri, Ferozepur Namak and Palla engineering college in Nuh.

Earlier the asymptomatic patients were placed under isolation in the hospitals but after the new guidelines by the ministry of home affairs(MHA), they will now be either home isolated or shifted to Covid care centres, said officials.

These centres will accommodate at least 2,000 asymptomatic patients.

Officials also said that samples of 197 people have been sent for testing and their results are awaited. They all are under quarantine and reports will come by Monday morning, said the CMO. A total of 65 cases have been recorded in the district so far.

According to the CMO, at least 4,975 people have been put under surveillance to date, of which 84 people have returned from foreign countries and are presently in Nuh. They were traced inside different mosques in the villages of Nuh. “We had sent the samples of 4,057 people, of which 65 have tested positive and 3,795 have tested negative. Two people are currently hospitalised,” said Yadav adding that 58 people have been recovered so far in the district and there are seven active cases.

Nuh, a district adjoining Gurugram, was once a hot spot zone after 45 Tablighi Jamaat attendees tested positive for the Covid-19 in the first week of April. Health officials say, after curtailing the wave of Jamaat attendees, their focus has been on drivers, who are undertaking interdistrict travel and their contacts to prevent the spread of the disease.

“Since the beginning, we were following the strategy of screening and contact tracing. We did not leave anyone even if there were no symptoms and we ensured the people who returned from the Delhi Markaz of Tablighi Jamaat were also placed under quarantine and all the details of their close contacts, including family members, were noted,” said deputy commissioner Pankaj, who goes by his first name.

The administration is keeping an eye on the movements of all people placed under surveillance and even those who have recovered. The areas from where the positive cases were reported have been declared as containment zones and no entry and exit are being allowed from those villages.

The Nuh district administration in last week of April declared 45 villages as containment zones and 133 as buffer zones, thereby banning the entry and exit of people in these villages.

After the Jamaat cases surfaced the district administration formed 289 teams consisting of health workers, police and administration. The teams conducted a detailed contact tracing of cases along with mapping all the Covid-19 epicentres and hot spots in the first week of April. Following this, teams conducted a house-to-house survey of all the villages.

As part of a coordinated effort, police, district administration and health department worked in close coordination and a war room was set up in the deputy commissioner’s office in the secretariat. The health department also conducted house-to-house surveillance and covered around 2.75 lakh houses, screening 14.5 lakh persons in the district. To date, 289 teams consisting of three people and one supervisor have screened 14.5 lakh villagers. About 24 mobile medical teams have been pressed into service.

“Through the survey, we identified 2,500 symptomatic patients, who were further monitored. We majorly focused on two things, keeping people with a travel history in self-quarantine and identifying those who have developed symptoms of Covid-19,” said Pankaj.