Gujarat: Ahead of session, 5 Assembly staff test positive

Media personnel covering Assembly proceedings will also have to get Covid-19 negative certificates to gain access to the building, Nitin Patel said on Saturday. (Representational)

Five out of 506 people who were tested for novel coronavirus ahead of the five-day session of the Gujarat Assembly starting on Monday have been detected with the infection, officials said on Saturday.

Covid-19 tests were conducted on Speaker Rajendra Trivedi and 505 staff members of the Assembly over the past two days, and five had been found to be infected, a release said.

It added that Trivedi had tested negative, while those whose reports returned positive comprised two staff members and three security personnel.

“As per direction of Assembly Speaker Rajendra Trivedi, on September 18 and 19, all Vidhan Sabha officers, employees, security branch personnel, Class III employees, sweepers, police, totaling 506 people, were tested for Covid-19 through rapid antigen test,” it said.

Covid-19 tests will also be conducted on all 172 legislators on Sunday before they are allowed entry into the Assembly building to attend the session, Health Minister Nitin Patel said.

Media personnel covering Assembly proceedings will also have to get Covid-19 negative certificates to gain access to the building, Patel said on Saturday.

Action by civic body

As Covid-19 cases continue to be on the rise, with the state witnessing highest daily surge of 1,432 cases on Saturday, municipal corporation areas continue to seal shops and factories, as non-compliance with precautionary norms continue.

In Ahmedabad, where 178 new cases were recorded, a solid waste management team of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) found excessive crowding, majority of customers not wearing masks and blatant flouting of social distancing norms at one of the largest jewellery showrooms in the city, AB Jewels.

The AMC team went ahead and sealed the shop and the urban local body also declared that in the coming days such drives of inspecting shops and showrooms shall continue. According to an AMC official, no Covid coordinator, as has been mandated by the urban local body as essential to be appointed in every establishment, was present at the showroom.

In Surat, where 281 new cases were reported, the municipal corporation (SMC) health department sealed diamond factories either in part or fully after 33 diamond polishers tested positive.

AMC-run SVP Hospital that came across several complaints of patients being refused admission in the hospital in the past week along with complaints from resident doctors of increased patient load, issued a press release on Saturday clarifying that the hospital is admitting only critical patients or those who cannot be transferred elsewhere.

In this regard, SVP Hospital is also admitting those who are detected to be Covid-19 positive in due course of non-Covid-related issues at other AMC-run hospitals – LG Hospital, Shardaben Hospital and VS Hospital. These may include paediatric patients, pregnant women, those in need of surgeries.

As per the release, SVP Hospital at present has 72 patients admitted in the ICU and 40 others admitted in high dependency unit beds. Ahmedabad at present has nearly 4,000 active cases which include those hospitalised or are at an institutional facility.

With PTI

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