16 new cases in a day, Noida sees sharpest spike; clusters a worry

TNN | Updated: Apr 14, 2020, 08:04 IST

Covid-9: 16 coronavirus positive cases reported in Noida

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NOIDA: The city’s Covid cases saw the sharpest single-day spike on Monday after a week that had pulled the graph down as 16 people tested positive. The total number of people in Noida infected with the novel coronavirus since the outbreak of the pandemic now stands at 80, the second-most in UP after Agra.
Some of the new cases are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat in Nizamuddin, officials said, opening up another dimension of cluster containment for the city that had seen no cases related to the Jamaat so far.

The most cases Noida had seen in a single day before this was on March 28 when nine people had tested positive.
The health department attributed the surge to the bunch of reports it received late on Monday, of 250 samples earlier sent for testing. Officials said most of these patients were already in quarantine and their source of infection and secondary contacts were being traced now. All patients were shifted to Sharda Hospital and Child PGI later in the night.
The city also made an addition to the recovered section as GIMS, the other Covid facility, discharged a woman patient after two reports showed she is infection-free. So far, 14 Covid patients have been discharged.
Information on only four of the 16 new patients was available — an 11-year-old boy and his mother from a group housing society in Sector 62, a 17-yar-old girl from Sector Eta 1 in Greater Noida and a 25-year-oldman from Gaur City in Greater Noida West.
Three of the patients are related to a Delhi resident working as a lab technician at Fortis Noida who had tested positive on April 7. The woman from Sector 62 was a roommate of the lab technician. Her son lived with relatives in the same sector, officials said. The man from Gaur City also works at Fortis.
Officials said that none of the four cases was related to the Cease Fire cluster that has contributed the maximum number of cases so far in the district. The source of infection of the girl from Eta 1 is still being investigated. Some of the other patients who tested positive on Monday are related to the Case Fire chain, officials said. But no other information was immediately available.
Monday’s spike came after a week in which Noida reported just six cases, following two previous weeks of 20-plus cases each that saw it become one of top 10 hotspots for Covid in India. None of the cases last week was connected to Cease Fire either.
The first case in Noida was reported on March 5 and the second on March 17, following which the numbers increased every week. Weeks four and five since the first case was reported showed maximum increase in overall numbers. These two weeks also saw maximum increase in cases related to Cease Fire. Between March 23 and 29, there were 19 cases related to Cease Fire of the 24 reported cases. The following week, 20 of the 26 cases were related to the company.
Officials said all primary and secondary contacts of Cease Fire employees have been traced and kept under surveillance either at the quarantine centres or at home.
“While people are talking of the Bhilwara and Agra model of containment, we have also taken stringent contact sourcing and containment measures here. In the past few weeks, we have been able to trace and put under surveillance all possible primary and secondary contacts of Cease Fire employees. When necessary, we did cluster containment of about 360 people from JJ Colony to prevent any spread of infection. We are very liberal with sample collection as well now,” said Narendra Bhooshan, nodal officer for Covid-19 response in the district.
However, Monday’s cases are likely to open up fresh clusters; there is already evidence of one in Sector 62 from the lab technician.
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