GB Nagar to follow Agra and Bhilwara models of containment exercise

The Gautam Budh Nagar administration will adopt the containment model of Agra and Bhilwara, Rajasthan. The first case of Covid-19 to be reported from Noida on March

The Gautam Budh Nagar administration will adopt the containment model of Agra and Bhilwara, Rajasthan. The first case of Covid-19 to be reported from Noida on March 12 was that of a tour guide.

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The 300 surveillance and containment teams started conducting a survey of 12 clusters in the district from where Covid-19 cases were reported.

One of the first clusters of six Covid-19 patients in India was of those who had come in contact with a Covid-19 patient from Delhi with a travel history to Italy. He tested positive in Agra on March 2. Within 10 days, 350 teams of health and other government officials surveyed over 12 lakh people in Agra, and 1,000 suspected patients were identified and their samples collected. Agra has a total 62 positive cases until Tuesday.

According to the official, who handled the first cluster of Covid-19 in Agra, there was no set model at that time to contain the spread.

“When the first cluster was identified in Agra, we had immediately constituted 350 teams to survey and screen people. Immediately, the next day, a group of 16 Italians tourists was found positive for the infection and they had stayed in a hotel in Agra. Our teams stayed in the hotel to sanitize and trace all persons who visited the hotel during the stay of the Italian group. We provided training to all hotels in Agra to handle the situation,” Dr Vikasendu Agarwal, state surveillance officer, Lucknow, said.

“There was no model for us to follow when we devised our own containment process. Agra hosts lakhs of foreign tourists, so it was a difficult task but we did it successfully,” Agarwal said.

In Bhilwara, the first Covid-19 case, of a private hospital doctor, was reported on March 19. The district since then have gone on to have the second highest number of Covid-19 cases in Rajasthan. But only one case was found positive after March 31. All positive cases are linked to the hospital which includes 19 hospital staff and their relatives.

Within eight days of the first case, 1,135 teams were constituted which surveyed over 75,000 houses, screened 365,600 persons in Bhilwara district. By March 31, samples of around 1,400 people were collected and tested.

The surveillance officer from World Health Organization (WHO) who was part of the core team which contained the spread of Covid-19 successfully in Bhilwara said quick contact tracing, social distancing and mass sampling are the only ways to contain the spread of the virus.

“Within eight days, our teams had surveyed over 73,000 houses in Bhilwara. Repeated survey and screening of the same houses and people are important to keep a tab and see if anybody has developed symptoms of the virus. Bhilwara was the first place where the Covid-19 outbreak had taken place in Rajasthan. So all the support required to conduct mass sampling was provided by state government which helped us in identifying infected persons quickly,” Dr Rajesh Gupta, surveillance medical officer, WHO, posted in Kota, Rajasthan, said.

“As a result of quick and intensive contact tracing, only one positive case has been found in Bhilwara since March 31. Over 3,000 samples have been sent for testing in Bhilwara till now,” Gupta said.

Gautam Budh Nagar reported its first Covid-19 case on March 12. By Tuesday, the total number of cases has risen to 58, of which 39 are linked to fire safety firm Ceasefire in Sector 135.

Last week, former district magistrate BN Singh was pulled up by chief minister Yogi Adityanath for failing to contain the spread of Covid-19 in the district. The new district magistrate Suhas LY joined on March 31 after which 300 surveillance and containment 300 teams were constituted.

A call centre was also started to address the queries and concerns the public has and also to undertake contact tracing of positive patients.

“In six days, we have constituted 300 teams and they started work on Tuesday. We have increased the number of sampling to screen suspected patients. Recently, we have started a new call centre to streamline the whole system of fighting Covid-19 in the district. Our patients are continuously getting discharged after treatment. We are expecting good results in the coming days as the procedure of contact tracing has been intensified,” Suhas said.

“We are also focusing on increasing the number of persons tested,” he said.