Over 5,000 corona tests in this town
VARANASI: Over 5,000 tests for coronavirus have been conducted in Varanasi district during the last two months in ongoing fight against the pandemic.
Medical teams also conducted thermal scanning of around 5 lakh people, including 40,000 migrants since the last week of March when the first case of corona was reported in the district. Varanasi district has a population of around 40 lakh.
Sub-divisional magistrate Pramod Kumar Pandey says, “For corona test, sampling of 5,329 persons has been done in the district so far. Out of which, report of 4789 samples has already been received. Of them, 162 are positive and remaining 4627 are negative. Report of 540 is awaited.”
Of 162, 90 have been cured, four died and number of active patients is 68 in the district.
Ever since the first case came to the light in the district, on an average, in the beginning around 100 samples of the people with symptoms of corona were collected and sent to the laboratory daily for the testing, an officer said. But the sampling further increased since mid April and now 150 to 175 samples were being collected daily, he added.
A doctor, who does not wish to be named, said that the sampling of every person having symptoms of corona, influenza like illness
and those with acute respiratory infection was being done.
In addition, the sampling of each person, who came in close contact with the person testing positive for coronavirus, was also done on mandatory basis, the doctor added.
District magistrate Kaushalraj Sharma said that preventive measures had been taken in each area declared hotspot in the district. Sanitisation and disinfectant spray had been done in each hotspot. Similar action had been taken in the areas which were declared hotspots recently after positive patient was found, he added. DM said that persons, who came in close contact with a positive patient, and their family members, were being identified through contact tracing and their sampling was being done. He said that thermal scanning of around 5 lakh people had been done in the district.
Varanasi’s corona tally was 152 till Monday. Of them, 83 have been successfully cured and four died. Active patients are 65.