Locals claim several deaths in GB Nagar villages, demand Covid-19 screening

Noida: Atar Singh, a farmer in his 50s at Roza Jalalpur in Greater Noida, lost both his sons, aged 24 and 22, on May 9. The two youths had Covid-19 symptoms and had complained of breathing difficulties.
People in several villages of Gautam Budh Nagar have been reporting fever, followed by the onset of breathing difficulties. Residents of half a dozen villages TOI spoke to claimed there had been more than several deaths over the past 10 days of people who showed Covid-like symptoms. There is, however, no official data on this.
The tragedy that struck Singh’s family has left Roza Jalalpur in shock. Singh’s elder son Deepak’s health began deteriorating on the intervening night of May 8 (Saturday) and 9 (Sunday). He couldn’t breathe and his oxygen saturation levels kept falling. The family was unable to find a ventilator in Greater Noida hospitals. Deepak passed away around 10am on Sunday.
After cremating the body, Atar was waiting to collect the ashes when he received an SOS call – that his younger son Pankaj was sinking. Pankaj passed away around 5pm the same evening.
A resident of the same locality, Ravindra Bhati, also a former zila panchayat president, said, “The two were too young. No testing or tracking team has visited our village in the past fortnight. Over the past 10 days, 19 people have died in Jalalpur and we fear they have died due to the infection. Several villagers have high fever but are getting no help or attention.”
Residents claimed health surveillance was missing in the rural belt and unlike people staying in urban areas, villag'rs are unable to raise attention through social media. Government officials, however, said intense tracing and testing in rural pockets was ordered May 5 onwards. Reports of deaths have, however, continued coming from villages like
Besides Jalalpur, reports of multiple deaths have surfaced from Khairpur Gurjar, Sadullapur, Shahberi, Achheja, Dujana and Jalpura. Former pradhan of Bisnoli village from Dujana gram panchayat, Dharmendra Kumar, said, “Several deaths have been reported in Dujana gram panchayat over the past 10 days. I know the names of 12 to 15 of them. Half of them had breathing problems.” Again, there is no official data yet to corroborate this.
Kumar said surveillance and testing needs to be intensified in Bisnoli, Dujana as well as Kachheda villages. “The only village where the situation is not as dire is Durai,” added Kumar.
A resident of Mewla Gopalgarh village in Jewar area, Yogesh Talan said, “Half the families in my village have people suffering from fever at present. But not a single health worker or surveillance team has visited our area.” Administrative officials said surveillance will be intensified further. Gautam Budh Nagar district magistrate Suhas LY said additional manpower had been deployed in villages since last week and the situation there “is improving”.