With complacency setting in, Covid-19 has once again started spreading its tentacles in Agra increasing the risk of a second wave of coronavirus infection in the district.
On Sunday alone, the district reported 65 fresh Covid-19 cases—the maximum in a day so far. On Saturday, there were a total of 2,901 Covid-19 cases in the district with 107 deaths.
“Wait and watch for three or four days,” said district magistrate Prabhu N Singh when asked if Agra was heading for its second peak. “Some sort of complacency seems to be setting in among Agra residents. It’s time to be more cautious. Diabetic and 50 plus employees should stay at home and assist from home for the next two weeks particularly,” the DM added.
Singh also said only 20% cases were being reported from rural areas and the rest from city areas as urban people had become more careless about their safety.
Agra’s chief medical officer (CMO) Dr RC Pandey too admitted that people here had lowered their guard and said, “There is no room for complacency as none can claim that they are not at the risk of getting the coronavirus infection. Staff at government offices are falling easy prey as they are coming to office without masks besides defying physical distancing norms. Cases are rising everywhere in the country and Agra is no exception. Thus one should be extra cautious now.”
“Also, people seem to have become careless because the rise in coronavirus cases here was far less than other districts in the state. By the end of August, Agra was in 24th place among the districts having maximum cases,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}“Also, people seem to have become careless because the rise in coronavirus cases here was far less than other districts in the state. By the end of August, Agra was in 24th place among the districts having maximum cases,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}“The rise in cases is attributed mainly to the rise in sample collection as Agra had by August 31 collected 1,17,527 samples and stood at the sixth place in doing so after Lucknow, Meerut, Noida, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr,” the CMO further said.
Ten government offices in the Taj city have reported 62 coronavirus cases in the last 15 days. The worst-affected offices are those of Dakshinanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Ltd, commissioner, DM compound and collectorate, SP city, Agra Development Authority and Agra Nagar Nigam among others.
On the rising cases in government offices, the DM said, “Offices need to be checked regularly and make sure all staff are wearing masks and strictly following social distancing. In fact, we are facing our toughest time now and need to treat everyone as carrier (of the virus).” He, however, added that low positivity rate (cases found positive per hundred samples) of 2.5% in the district gave some relief.
Agra was the first UP district to have reported five coronavirus cases on March 2 this year. However, there were only 12 cases in the district in March. In April, 441 cases were reported, 439 in May, 390 in June and 574 in July but the coronavirus cases jumped to 1,045 in August.
“Many justified the rise in the cases in August because of good pace of sample collection and testing in the district. As many as 60,732 samples were collected here in August as compared to 29,889 collected in July,” the CMO said.
Agra district was first in the state to report Covid-19 cases on March 21.
On May 21, Agra mayor had expressed apprehension of Agra becoming another Wuhan.
Much acclaimed ‘Agra Model’ was exposed because of high number of cases in the first two months.
Initially, Agra remained the district with maximum cases.
With 2,901 cases so far, Agra is presently at 24th position in the list of districts having maximum cases.
Agra is the 6th district in the state with maximum sample collection
62 employees at 10 govt offices have tested positive in the last 15 days of August.
Positivity rate in Agra is at 2.5% on an average.
80% cases are from the city and only 20% from rural areas of Agra.