Three more test positive, Gujarat count climbs to 47; police seeks help of sarpanches to ensure lockdown

“All three patients in a sense are related to the 36-year-old patient who has history of travel to Dubai and who had tested positive on Tuesday. The woman who tested positive today (Friday) is the wife of the friend of this 36-year-old friend. We are ascertaining if the woman also had direct contact with the man with travel history to Dubai or she contracted the infection from her husband and therefore a third-stage transmission,” Dr Mitesh Bhanderi, chief district health officer of Rajkot, told The Indian Express.

He said that eight new suspected cases were registered and samples of these eight patients have been sent for testing after admitting them to the Rajkot civil hospital.

Meanwhile, he said that the microbiology lab of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Medical College in Rajkot has been given approval for conducting novel coronavirus tests. “The machines have been calibrated. The labs will have the capacity to test 50 samples per day. However, positive results given by the RAjkot lab will have to be sent either to Jamnagar lab or Ahmedabad lab for confirmation,” Dr Bhanderi further said.

A total of 934 samples were taken as of Friday with 47 testing positive as of now, that is five of the 100 samples being tested, are turning out to be positive.

Pregnant patient

The Vadodara administration has set up special facilities for the eight COVID-19 positive patients in the isolation ward at SSG hospital. The administration has also ensured that a dialysis machine is available for patients and a special labour room has been set up to look into the need of the 29-year-old positive patient who is said to be in advance stage of pregnancy. She had contracted the virus via local transmission from her in-laws. District collector Shalini Agarwal told this newspaper that the hospital had also prepared itself for any emergency caesarean if needed and has a gynaecologist on standby for this patient.

“The patient is in her advanced stage of pregnancy and we are making sure that we are ready for any emergency. We have created a special labour area near the isolation ward as well as equipped them for a caesarean if needed. A gynaecologist is attending to this female patient. The dialysis units will not be used for anyone else outside the isolation ward. We have procured machines in collaboration with the kidney hospital in Ahmedabad,” Agarwal said.

The 29-year-old is the daughter-in-law of the 52-year-old man and and the 46-year-old woman who had tested positive for COVID-19 last week after their return from a tour to Sri Lanka. Their 32-year-old son and 27-year-old daughter have also tested positive due to local transmission of the virus.

Surveillance

As submitted before the Gujarat High Court by health department joint secretary I M Qureshi, house-to-house survey of the entire state is being conducted through TeCHO+ app as per IDSP checklist. Any person found to have symptoms is put under quarantine.

As of Friday, 3.98 crore people were screened, with Jayanti Ravi stating that each household took up to seven to eight minutes of a health worker’s time. Screening is also being undertaken through telephonic follow-ups.

COVID hospitals

A positive patient can be categorised to be asymptomatic, mildly symptomatic, severely symptomatic and critical requiring ventilators care, as Ravi classified, the four COVID hospitals have readied themselves to start operations immediately to take care of patients under the first three categories.

Ahmedabad COVID Hospital has provisioned 960 general beds for the first two categories and 240 beds to
take on the third level of positive patients. Similarly, Vadodara has provisioned 50 ICU beds and 200 general beds, Surat has provisioned 40 ICU beds and140 general beds and Rajkot has provisioned 40 ICU beds and 160 general beds. (ENS)

Gujarat Police seeks help of sarpanches to ensure lockdown on village roads

The Gujarat Police on Friday sought the help of village sarpanches to ensure that only vehicles for essential services ply on village and taluka roads during the lockdown imposed in the wake of coronavirus outbreak.

On the third day of the nationwide lockdown, over 1600 offences were registered and more than 900 people were detained for violating the restriction orders.

Police have also started using drone cameras in major cities to keep a watch. “Police cannot reach all the villages in time. So I would request the sarpanch of each village to lend a helping hand to the police. The sarpanches must block the movement of vehicles (except that of essential goods and services) on the roads of their respective villages. No person should be allowed to enter for non-essential purposes,” Gujarat Director General of Police (DGP) Shivanand Jha said at a press conference.

The DGP said that police of other districts have also been informed to use drone cameras. “Police will take strict action against those venturing outside their houses without any purpose or essential work. In this regard, till now we have seized 2027 vehicles across the state for breaking the lockdown guidelines. In the past 24 hours, a total of 1653 offences were registered in the state for violation of lockdown and 944 have been detained,” Jha added.

“The migrant daily wage labourers who are trying to get to their native places in other states on foot are being provided food and water. The central government has directed not to interrupt the movement of trucks with essential commodities. So if anyone comes across any stranded truck on the highway or absence of driver or absence of food for the drivers in the journey, they can contact the district helpline number 1077. Also the helpline for state control is 1070 where people from Gujarat who are stuck in other states can call,” the DGP further said.

Police also made an appeal to the religious heads to avoid assembling at temples, mosques and other places of worship.

“Even if you have to visit the place of worship, please go in groups of one or two, and not in clusters,” the DGP said.
Meanwhile, several delivery executives were seen delivering essential goods outside residential societies in Ahmedabad since Friday morning.

On Thursday, Ahmedabad city police commissioner Ashish Bhatia had lifted the ban on movement of heavy and medium transport and passenger vehicles and also allowed delivery executives of various e-commerce portals to operate in the city.

Several residents were also seen venturing outside their houses till 8-9 am to buy essential commodities such as milk even as police maintained a strict lockdown on major roads such as SG highway, Sardar Patel ring road, IOC road, Sola High Court and Kargil Chowk.

“Our colony has introduced complete lockdown. So security guards have been asked to collect all the food items and milk which used to be delivered at our doorsteps. We only allow people to step out for emergency needs,” said Poonam Singh, a resident of Shiv Shakti Nagar in Chandkheda.