4,000 residents of Noida society quarantined for two days after positive Covid-19 case

Noida

Noida

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Around 4,000 residents of a residential society in Noida sector 74 have been asked to remain in quarantine at their homes on Saturday for two days after a resident tested positive for Covid-19.

The latest case is of a 42-year-old man who had recently returned from a Europe trip with his wife on March 9. He later played Holi with residents the next day.

He began showing symptoms of the disease almost a week later and his samples were sent for testing on March 17. The positive result forced the district administration to quarantine other residents.

Supertech Capetown is one of the largest residential society in the region with over 40 different towers.

With the latest case, the number of Covid-19 patients in Gautam Budh Nagar was five on Saturday.

“The patient had visited 10 countries, including Turkey, France, Italy and Switzerland. His wife’s reports have come negative. He has been put under isolation at the Government Institute of Medical Sciences, while his wife and minor children have been put under home quarantine,” said Dr Anurag Bhargava, chief medical officer, adding that the samples from the children would be taken only if they showed symptoms of the disease. His wife tested negative for the disease.

The minor children had not gone with their parents to Europe and were with their grandparents who had come to the society for the purpose. The children’s grandparents stayed with the man for two days before they returned to their native place, which officials were unwilling to disclose but said they had gotten in touch with them.

The district magistrate sealed the society for a temporary period and said they will update the order after receiving more information. There is now a complete ban on entry into or exit from the society, except for emergency, and residents have been asked to stay inside their houses. The building will be sealed till 7pm on March 23.

“We have started the sanitisation work of the society. The patient’s wife is under home quarantine. The decision on closing the nearby area as a precautionary will be taken as per the situation and further course of time,” said BN Singh, district magistrate (DM), Gautam Budh Nagar.

“We are tracing all the people he got in touch with, and if anyone shows symptoms then samples will be collected accordingly,” said Bhargava.

Officials have informed residents that any violation will call for a legal action under section 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code.

“The person didn’t inform anybody after coming back from the foreign trip. The couple didn’t even quarantine themselves after coming back. We came to know about his travel history from his neighbours after which we requested him to keep himself in quarantine but it was already quite late,” said the president of the society’s residents’ welfare association (RWA).

“We at Supertech have started taking all the precautionary and preventive measures at the early stages. We sanitising whole Capetown society under the guidance of Noida Chief Medical officer of health department,” said Supertech Chairman RK Arora.

According to the officials, the person had contacted officials after getting symptoms of the virus and gave his sample on March 17. “Officials took him along with themselves on Friday night itself but we were informed in the morning,” said the RWA president. “We asked our 20,000 residents to quarantine themselves on the DM’s orders.”

The identified patient lives with his wife and two children in the society. The couple had left their children with their grandparents who had come down to take care of the kids while two duo had gone for a Europe trip.

Currently, 25 persons are under isolation at the newly built district hospital in sector 39, 4 persons are at the Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar Hosstel in Gautam Budh University in Greater Noida while four confirmed patients are in isolation at Gyms. All the persons who have been put under isolation at the hostel and the new district hospital are awaiting their reports for COVID-19.

By Saturday evening, health officials had tracked 1975 persons, 290 samples were sent for COVID-19 tests, four reports have come positive, 189 have come negative and 96 reports are still awaited while five have been found positive for the virus. around 1624 persons are under surveillance of the health department.