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UP claims its strategy to ring-fence Covid-19 hotspots paying dividend
Even as the graph of coronavirus positive cases in Uttar Pradesh continues to maintain an upward trend, with overall tally of infected patients reaching 751 on Thursday, the state government claimed that its strategy to ring-fence hotspots is paying dividends.
Even as the graph of coronavirus positive cases in Uttar Pradesh continues to maintain an upward trend, with overall tally of infected patients reaching 751 on Thursday, the state government claimed that its strategy to ring-fence hotspots is paying dividends.
The claim is backed by the fact that maximum numbers of cases are churning out from the hotspots that have been sealed.
The state government has not only sealed the hotspots but also carrying out house to house searches to trace the infected people as well as those who have come in contact with the Covid-19 positive persons, said a senior state government officer.
Out of 751 Covid-19 positive cases reported in the state, 639 have been reported from the hotspots. The 80% of the cases are being reported from 173 hotspots in the 15 districts and 70 hotspots in remaining 30 districts, said additional chief secretary, Home, Awanish Kumar Awasthi.
In a week-long exercise, the health and police department teams have screened over 20 lakh people residing in around 3.50 lakh households in the hotspots. The health department team is collecting samples of all the suspected people for laboratory test.
Once the report is positive the infected person is admitted to the isolation ward and those who have come in contact with the positive person are quarantined. “We have already quarantined 9,274 people and sent their sample for laboratory test as well,” said Awasthi.
On Thursday, 18 fresh positive cases were reported from the hotspot in Agra taking the total tally to 167.
In Lucknow too, 31 fresh cases were reported from the hotspots taking the total tally of the positive cases in the district to 75. The sample report of the suspected people from the hotspots has led to surge in the positive cases in UP whereas fewer positive cases have been reported from the non-hotspots area, he said.
To check the spread of coronavirus, the state government has drafted a strategy to ring-fence the hotspots by sealing the area. The central government has acknowledged the UP model and directed other states to implement the model in respective areas to check the spread of the coronavirus, he said.
Principal secretary, health and family welfare, Amit Mohan Prasad said under the ring-fence strategy the health department had declared 3 km area from where the maximum Covid-19 positive cases have been reported as containment zone to carry out intensive screening of the people and sanitization. Another 2 km around has been declared as buffer zone where too the health department is maintaining close watch on the households and people residing in it, he said.
The entry and exit of the people have been restricted. The health department has also called upon the people to alert the administration or health team if they find suspected people in the locality. Several people have used the helpline or called the control rooms to sound an alert about the suspected person or arrival of people from outside, he said.
“We have decided to carry out 100% sampling in the hotspots. Once the sampling, isolating and quarantine exercise is completed we will be able to contain the spread of the coronavirus and control the cases too,” he said.
Among the 751 positive cases, 60% are members of Tabligi Jamaat. Again, the Tabligi Jamaat members have been traced in the hotspots in 45 districts. The police teams have traced 2,717 Tabligi Jamaat members and 2,470 have been quarantined. The health department is also tracing the people who have come in contact with Jamaatis to collect samples and admit in the quarantine facilities for 14 days, he said.
The 325 Jamaatis, who have come from foreign countries, have been also traced in the hotspots. They have been quarantined.
“The FIR has been registered against 295 foreigners and passports of 259 persons have been confiscated,” he said.
