Gzb Covid hospital sees off first batch of recovered patients

The doctors and healthcare staff at the L1 Covid-19 hospital in Ghaziabad gave a warm send off to four patients of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) who had recovered

The doctors and healthcare staff at the L1 Covid-19 hospital in Ghaziabad gave a warm send off to four patients of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) who had recovered and were discharged from the hospital in Muradnagar on Monday. These were the first set of patients to be discharged from the L1 hospital set up in Ghaziabad in the first week of April, health department officials said.

HT Image

Officials said that one of the four patients was a woman from Vasundhara, an employee of the Noida-based company Ceasefire, while three others were Masuri-based men who were exposed to the virus at a religious congregation in March.

“The four will now be under home quarantine for 14 days. We counselled them on all the precautions to be taken so that the infection doesn’t recur. They were sent home in an advanced life-support ambulance. We now have a total of 17 Covid-19 patients under our care,” hospital superintendent Dr GP Mathuria said.

The state has created a dedicated chain of Covid-19 hospitals—L1, L2 and L3. The L1 category of hospitals deals with uncomplicated cases of Covid-19 and each district has one such hospital, the cases that require more attention are sent to L2 category hospitals and critical patients are sent to L3 category hospitals for specialised treatment. The state has a total of six L3 category hospitals.

In Ghaziabad, the Muradnagar hospital is L1 category while the Sanjay Nagar District Hospital is a L2 category hospital. Ghaziabad does not have an L3 category hospital; any critical patient from here would be referred to the Meerut Medical College or to the hospitals in New Delhi.

SCC SAPPHIRE SEALED

The Ghaziabad district administration on Monday sealed B Block of SCC Sapphire highrise in Raj Nagar Extension. The chief medical officer (CMO) said that the decision was taken after a resident, who is a doctor and posted in Delhi, was found positive for Covid-19 infection.

“The family stays in the highrise, but the doctor has not visited them in 1.5 months (since the outbreak). So, a decision was taken to not make it a hotspot. In all, we have seen 27 positive cases of Covid-19 in Ghaziabad and seven patients, including four on Monday, have been discharged so far,” CMO Dr NK Gupta said.

“The highrise has been sealed as a precautionary measure; it is not a hotspot. The entire highrise has been sanitized and cleaning was taken up,” city magistrate Shiv Pratap Shukl said.

As of now, Ghaziabad district has 14 hot spots. The state has 146 hot spots in 15 districts, including Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad, and 1,71,232 houses have been affected with a population of about 9,78,055 people, state government officials said on Monday.

“Of the 550 Covid cases, 401 cases are in these 146 hot spots. So, we have about 80-85% Covid-19 cases in these hot spots. We have also identified 62 more hot spots in another 25 districts; these have 1,62,664 houses with a population of about 9,50,828 persons, besides having 80 Covid-19 positive cases. All efforts are being made to control the spread of coronavirus (Sars-Cov-2),” additional chief secretary (home) Awanish Awasthi said.

The total number of Covid-19 cases in UP stood was 550 till Monday afternoon, including 307 cases related to a religious congregation in Delhi in mid-March.

Awasthi added, “The chief minister on Monday directed state officials that from now on, in case of non-disclosure, legal action will be taken against people who are still in hiding or have not disclosed their travel history. In case any such instance is found, the respective district magistrates and senior superintendent of police will be held responsible.”

POOL TESTING

In another development, principal secretary (health) Amit Mohan Prasad said the Indian Council of Medical Research has given permission for pool testing of Covid-19 samples so fewer test kits are utilised.

“In pool testing of samples, for example, we will mix the swabs of 10 patients. In case the result is negative, we will know all 10 are not infected and only one kit would have been used. In case the sample turns positive, then we will go for individual testing. This will help save us resources and get test results faster for many patients,” he added.