Gzb: Community containment rids 102 villages of Covid
Ghaziabad: A couple of weeks ago when Covid was at its peak in rural areas and the number of positive cases were increasing each day, the district administration of Ghaziabad had implemented a "voluntary community containment programme" to lower the rate of infection. As a result, 102 of the total 161 villages in the district have been successfully made free from Covid with no active case now. Officials have claimed that the rest of villages are likely to become Covid-free in the next 10-15 days.
The voluntary community containment programme also had its effect on residential wards under the municipal area as 10 out of 34 wards in Khoda area, 46 out of 55 wards in Loni, 10 out of 25 wards in Muradnagar and two out of 26 wards in Modi Nagar area have been made free from Covid.
Along with these areas, three municipal areas — Patla, Niwadi and Faridnagar area have been completely made free from Covid with not even a single case active at present, officials have said.
Ajay Shankar Pandey, district magistrate, Ghaziabad said that the programme has been very effective to control the spread of infection in the rural areas of the district.
"At present we have 102 villages in the district which have no active cases. The voluntary community containment programme is also effective in municipal wards with many of them becoming totally free from Covid while rest are expected to become Covid-free soon," the DM said.
Detailing how the programme worked, the DM informed that under the programme, there are restrictions like opening of shops for a brief time period, community policing and restricting outsiders' entry to villages along with proper sanitation and cleaning of the villages.
"The administration will also ensure that no new cases come up in the areas/villages which have become Covid free," DM Pandey added.
In the last five days, about 17,500 tests were conducted across the rural segments under the programme which resulted in 252 positive cases. The health department has also distributed over 65,000 medicine kits prescribed by the government which can be used for the treatment of Covid patients.
Ghaziabad district on Friday reported a total of 94 new Covid infections.
Meanwhile, a total of 53 positive cases were reported from the adjoining Gautam Buddh Nagar district on Friday taking the total number of cases to 61,757.
Five deaths were also reported due to Covid on Friday taking the death toll to 439. With 428 positive patients getting recovered from Covid on Friday, the number of active cases now stands at 1,930.
