Ghaziabad: 6 residential segments contributed 49% cases to district’s overall Covid tally since March

Ghaziabad: The share of coronavirus (Covid-19) positive cases from six major residential segments has increased in Ghaziabad every month since July, and together

Ghaziabad: The share of coronavirus (Covid-19) positive cases from six major residential segments has increased in Ghaziabad every month since July, and together they accounted for about 49.12% of the total Covid-19 cases in the district by the end of October.

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The six localities – Indirapuram, Vaishali, Vasundhara, Raj Nagar, Kavi Nagar (Carte) and Sahibabad – comprise middle-class working population in droves, besides having a large base of traders and people involved in businesses and other such commerce. According to figures of the health department, the district had nearly 18,713 cases till October 31 and these six segments are those which had more than 1,000 overall cases (from March to October), with a combined percentage of 49.12% (9,191 combined cases) in the district’s total Covid-19 tally.

“Initially, we had taken up measures in areas like Loni, Khoda and Vaishali and these yielded encouraging results. The six segments have a large population base including a large number of people who travel to and from Delhi frequently, besides attending to their businesses. These are the people who travel more and also meet a lot of people on a day-to-day basis,” said Ajay Shankar Pandey, district magistrate.

“Under our ‘November action plan,’ we will hold meetings with local councillors and representatives and chalk out plans to intensify testing, contact tracing, surveillance and awareness to reduce the number of cases in the coming time. During the festive season, there is crowding in markets and people must adhere to social-distancing norms and wear masks,” he added.

According to figures, the six segments in June had a total share of about 41.32% and this reduced a bit to 40.5% in July. Ever since then, the share of these six has only risen – 46.22% in August, 52.48% in September and 57.81% in October.

The experts said that the areas which have higher density of population and also comprises working class, are likely to have more cases.

“It is because people in such areas move and mix a lot due to their daily work. However, residents of such areas must take extra precautions in winter as people will mostly remain confined to houses and infected persons are likely to pass it on to their family members. It is likely that the virus may spread during the festive season as well,” said Dr Lalit Kant, the former epidemiology and communicable diseases head at the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR).

“We are yet to get the vaccine and things will also depend upon its success rate when it comes. The major problem nowadays is enforcement, as people often move about without masks and flout social-distancing norms,” he added.

Of the six segments, Indirapuram tops the list with overall 2,123 cases from March to October, while Carte segment, comprising localities like Kavi Nagar, Avantika, Nehru Nagar, Shastri Nagar and Chiranjeev Vihar, among others, emerges second with 1,952 overall cases from March to October.

The Sahibabad segment, which comprises localities such as Raj Bagh, Shalimar Garden, Rajendra Nagar and Lajpat Nagar, among others, stands third with 1,561 cases from March to October. There are a total of 26 segments in Ghaziabad.

“Apart from other reasons of high case load in the six segments, we have also been conducting about 70-75% daily testing in these areas. So, the number of positive cases over time is also on the higher side. Our surveillance and contact tracing activities are regularly going on with special focus to these areas,” said an officer from the district health department who wished not to be named.