Ggm: Residents suspicious over mismatch between cases reported by Aarogya Setu and district officials
GURUGRAM: With the total number of COVID-19 cases having breached the 250-mark on Saturday, there is suspicion among a large number of residents on the city that the actual case count may be higher than what is being reported by district officials here.
In Madanpuri Pataudi Chowk, a resident on Friday highlighted that in the radius of just 10 kilometres, the Aarogya Setu app said there were 278 cases, way more than the total number of cases reported by Gurugram Authorities as of Friday, which stood at 259.
Similar complaints of discrepancies have been reported by the residents in Sohna Road, Golf Course Road and various other parts of Old Gurugram.
“We are not aware of this issue. On our side we report the right figure and have ensured that there is full transparency from our side. The data that is being collected by us is then sent to the Haryana Health Department and then the Union Health Ministry. There is no chance that with this mechanism we will provide the wrong figures,” said a senior official from the Health Department.
Suresh Kumar who is the resident of Gurugram Sector-14 said, “There may be a possibility that a large number of cases from Delhi that shared its border with Gurugram may also be added but all this should be mentioned by the public officials.”
The discrepancies in the actual figures have again raised the concern of undetected cases of COVID-19 in Gurugram.
With number of infected patients increasing by the day, a worrying trend is a large number of menial and blue collar workers are getting affected by the virus.
People employed as vegetable vendors, security guards, industrial workers, auto drivers, health workers, office boys and even bank executives are now people who form the majority of active patients. With questions already being raised on the public health care system in Gurugram, the rise in number of cases is now resulting in more criticism.
Despite claims that the Gurugram public health department is engaged in mass screening and testing programmes of symptomatic individuals, urban slums in the city do not see health workers turning up for screening or testing activities.
Even in the sealed areas which comprises a large number of industrial areas, many people remain unscreened. In Dundahera for example, an industrial area that has witnessed a spate of cases, only 5000 persons have been screened. The total population of the area is estimated to be over 25,000.