Five go missing after testing Covid +ve in Moradabad, FIR lodged
LUCKNOW : The district health department of Moradabad has lodged a complaint against five people who have gone missing after testing positive for Covid-19, senior health officials said on Thursday.
The health department has also sought support of local police in tracing them and ensuring that they remain in home quarantine.
Based on the complaint, the Moradabad police have filed an FIR under section of Epidemic Diseases Act against the five people on Thursday.
Confirming the development, district surveillance officer Dr DK Premi said, ”We have not been able to track five people from different parts of the district who tested positive between March 25 and 30. “
Every person undergoing testing for Covid-19 is required to submit a testing form with information, including their current address and mobile phone number so that the authorities can intimate them about the findings of test and ensure that they follow required protocols, if tested positive.
“These people wrong information about their address and phone number in the pre-testing form, which is a clear violation of the Epidemic Act,” said the officer. To avoid such incident in the future, the health department has also decided to ask every person coming for testing to give a miss call from his phone during registration. This will allow the staff to ascertain if his phone number is correct.
While the officials declined to reveal the names of the people, they confirmed that all of them are males.
Reportedly at least two of the men have recent travel history.
Considering the recent spike in Covid-19 cases, the administration has turned stricter against violators of Covid-19 protocols. Moradabad is one of the districts in UP which has recorded highest number of new Covid-19 cases in past few days. 15 new Covid-19 cases were reported from the district on Wednesday that took the total number of active cases in the district to 105.
The local health administration, as per government order, has allotted beds in hospitals across the district to handle critical Covid-19 cases in the district.