150 new cases in Ghaziabad, SDM tests positive, Covid control room sealed

GHAZIABAD: District’s Covid count on Saturday crossed 8,000-mark after 150 new cases were reported. City till date reported 8,034 cases but active cases are 1,355 as 6611 people have been discharged so far. City’s death toll is 68.
It has taken just eight days to add the last 1,000 cases to cross the 8,000-mark. Earlier it had taken nine days for Covid figures to cross the 7,000-mark from 6,000 on August 11.
Meanwhile on Saturday a prominent mala in Rajnagar district centre was sealed after 13 staffers in the shop tested positive. “13 staffers from Shoppers Stop located in Gaur Mall in RDC have tested positive so we have sealed the entire mall and a massive sanitization drive is being carried out,” said NK Gupta, chief medical officer.
But the problem is tracing contacts of these positive staffers that has emerged as a big challenge for the health department. “In the last week or so hundreds of customers had visited the mall and we suspect that many of them may have contracted the disease, we are trying to get the details of the customers and our quick response team is on to the job to trace as many contacts as possible,” added Gupta.
While Gaur Mall was sealed CMO’s office and Covid Control Room located at DM’s office was also sealed for 24-hours after a staffers deputed at Covid control desk tested positive. “A staffer at Covid control desk has also tested positive as a result of which it has been sealed,” said Gupta. “An official at CMO’s office and his wife has also tested positive and as a precautionary measure we had to seal CMO office also,” added Gupta.
Meanwhile the district magistrate has also confirmed that SDM Modinagar, Aditya Prajapati has also tested positive and has been admitted to Covid care hospital. “Test has confirmed that SDM Modinagar Aditya Prajapati has tested positive, he is admitted to hospital while the health department has been trying to trace his contacts over the past few days,” said Ajay Shankar Pandey.
On the direction from the state government the administration convenes at many meetings every day with all top officials from the administration including the DM, CMO,CDO, ADMs and SDMs and nodal officer appointed by the state government. The practice has put at risk of Covid to entire state administrative machinery and there have been talks of shifting to virtual meetings.
“This is the third case when a high ranking official from administration has tested positive and every day we all sit in the same conference room which is quire risky, we must think of conducting virtual meetings” said an official on condition of anonymity.