Six Agra residents test positive for coronavirus
LUCKNOW : Six people from Agra tested positive for the coronavirus on Wednesday.
“Six persons in Agra, who are family members of the person from Delhi who has already tested positive, also tested positive,” the union ministry of health and family welfare confirmed.
“In all, 34 samples were sent from Uttar Pradesh to the Pune lab of which 28 tested negative. The other six have been shifted to Sardarjung Hospital (in New Delhi),” said Uttar Pradesh health minister JP Singh.
“After confirmation, our teams are visiting localities in Agra district to make people aware. There is no need to panic,” he said to reporters on the sidelines of an event in the state capital.
Preparedness in the state to deal with coronavirus was far
ahead of those in other states, the minister said.
However, Dr Vikasendu Agarwal, the state surveillance officer, said the report from the National Institute of Virology, Pune, was yet to be received.
The Delhi resident, who tested positive for the coronavirus, had
returned from a foreign trip on February 26. Two brothers, who are residents of Agra, were with him. They developed symptoms and later had to be admitted to hospital.
Samples were taken of other 11 family members of these two
brothers. Now, six Agra residents are admitted to Safdarjung hospital in New Delhi and seven others isolated at their home.
Till now, 50 samples of suspected cases from Agra have been sent for lab tests, including 24 samples taken on Wednesday, an official at the Agra district hospital said.
According to the UP health department, 175 samples were sent for novel coronavirus testing. These included four samples sent to NIV, Pune, 112 to KGMU Lucknow and 59 to NCDC Delhi.
Four symptomatic travellers have been admitted to the isolation wing of King George’s Medical University.
As many as 2773 travellers from coronavirus affected countries have been identified and tracked by district surveillance units in Uttar Pradesh and all of them were placed under surveillance. Among them, 690 travellers are in home isolation, seven of them are symptomatic at present and admitted to hospitals.
In all, 1606 travelers have completed 28 days’ of mandatory observation period after coming back from China. Uttar Pradesh has cross-notified 470 travelers to other states within India.
In Agra, 22 teams of three workers each have been formed to cover an area within a threekilometre radius of the Master Plan Road, a district administration official said.
These teams have visited around 12000 houses during the day, searching for symptomatic travellers from specified 12 countries.