6 more test positive for Covid-19, Gautam Budh Nagar’s cases highest in UP

Six more people tested positive for Covid-19 in Gautam Budh Nagar on Monday, taking the total number of positive cases in the district to 38, the highest in Uttar

Six more people tested positive for Covid-19 in Gautam Budh Nagar on Monday, taking the total number of positive cases in the district to 38, the highest in Uttar Pradesh. Out of the 38 cases, 25 people are linked to employees or are relatives of people working at security and fire safety solutions firm, Ceasefire, in sector 135.

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The patients who tested positive on Monday include the five-year-old son, 37-year-old wife and 25-year-old sister of a man employed with Ceasefire, who had earlier been infected with Covid-19. The other people who were infected were a two-year-old, whose father works with Ceasefire and has already found positive, a 82-year-old woman from Arun Vihar, sector 37, whose 53-year-old daughter was employed with the company and had tested positive for Covid-19 and a 21-year-old man from Ghodi Bachheda village, Dadri, who runs a shop in sector 121 of Noida.

By Monday, 25 people related to Ceasefire — including the company’s managing director, employees and their family members have been confirmed positive for Covid-19. Apart from this, three more people in Ghaziabad and one in Bareilly related to the firm have tested positive for the disease. The Bareilly patient had come in contact with around 50 people and officials are now trying to trace and put all of them under home quarantine.

The Expressway police has so far lodged an FIR against Ceasefire, under sections 45 (punishment of offences committed within India), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) of the Indian Penal Code. The FIR has been lodged on the orders of the CMO for hiding the foreign travel history of some employees of the firm.

The managing director of the company had returned from London on March 1. Another employee had returned on March 8 and they had a visiting auditor from London for three days in the third week of March. All the three jumped their home quarantine period and were attending office, which officials believe led to the spread of the virus among other employees and then to their family members.

Meanwhile, two Covid-19 positive patients undergoing treatment at the Government Institute of Medical Sciences were discharged on Monday evening, after their reports showed them negative for the infection. Three patients were discharged last week after successful treatment.

Doctors at GIMS said they were happy to see Covid-19 patients responding to the treatment. “Till now, five patients have been discharged after completing their treatment successfully. All the patients were tested twice and they were found negative in both the tests. Both the tests were conducted after a gap of 24 hours,” said Dr Saurabh Shrivastava, head of department, medicine and head of the team of doctors treating Covid-19 patients.

By Monday night, the health department had tracked 1,135 travellers, put another 1,865 people under surveillance, and collected 531 samples. Of these, 38 had come positive, 421 samples tested negative and the results of 75 was awaited.