GB Nagar to adapt polio plan to combat Covid-19
On Thursday when Gautam Budh Nagar recorded its highest single day spike in Covid-19 cases (143 new cases), the administration increased the curfew to between 8pm and 6am.
Till now, it was from 9pm to 5am. Movement of four or more people will be restricted within the district limits as per section 144 of the Indian Penal Code during this time.
The violators can be booked under Section 188 (disobedience to the directions given by a public servant), Section 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and Section 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) of the Indian Penal Code.
The administration also said it would adapt a plan used to eradicate polio in its surveillance measures.
The pulse polio micro plan is a tried and tested campaign detailed by the World Health Organization. It involved leveraging resources at the block, district and state levels to immunize all children under five. The features of the plan includes pro-active surveillance of the population, estimating resources, recording and reporting cases and strict monitoring.
Till now, patients used to inform district administration of their symptoms following which they would be tested. But with this new plan, the administration hopes to reach out to every household and monitor every case.
Announcing this plan, district nodal officer (Covid-19) and senior IAS officer Narendra Bhooshan said it would be executed in containment zones. “As many as 800 teams will be constituted to monitoring and necessary action in the containment zones in the district,” he said.
The district on Thursday reported the total case count at 1,811. It had reported over 100 new infections for the first time on Monday.
One more person died of the disease, taking the fatality count to 20. While district chief medical officer (CMO) Dr. Deepak Ohri refused to give more the details of on the dead person, another health official, on condition of anonymity, said it was a woman in her fifth month of pregnancy.
Ohri said 32 patients were cured and discharged from different hospitals on Thursday, taking the overall number of cured people to 1,028 in the district so far. “As a result, the district now has 763 active cases,” he said.
On the other hand, according to the daily Covid-19 bulletin released on Thursday by the state headquarters in Lucknow, in the last 24 hours, as many as 15 Covid-19 patients in Uttar Pradesh have lost their lives and their death audit report is awaited.
According to the bulletin, the overall tally of the Covid-19 positive cases in the state has gone to 20,193, with 654 new cases in last 24 hours. “While 611 patients have lost their lives due to coronavirus infection in the state so far, 626 patients have been cured and discharged from different hospitals in the state,” the bulletin stated.