Chandigarh, April 15 (IANS) A door-to-door screening against COVID-19 was carried out in Punjab’s holy city Amritsar in which 53,865 people were examined in the past three days, an official said on Wednesday.
“Hotspot areas from where positive cases of Nirmal Singh and Jaswinder Singh had come were covered”, Special Chief Secretary K.B.S. Sidhu, who is in-charge to monitor statewide coronavirus cases, informed in a tweet.
Nirmal Singh and Jaswinder Singh were among the 11 coronavirus cases reported in the city. Both succumbed to COVID-19.
They include Jodh Nagar, ESI Hospital vicinity, Kangra Colony and Mustafabad.
The massive operation covered 12,401 households.
One suspected case was found, whose test report has come out to be negative, he said.
The whole operation was conducted by 42 teams, managed by 10 supervisory officers.
Additional Deputy Commissioner Himanshu Aggarwal told the media the medical teams screened all members of each family. They maintained travel history of people to trace their contacts. If anyone was found to be symptomatic, he or she was tested.
Taking its battle against Covid-19 to the next level, the state government on Tuesday launched rapid testing in two hotspot districts — Mohali and Jalandhar — with the aim to eventually cover all the 17 hotspots in a phased manner.
The facility was launched by Health and Family Welfare Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu at Dera Bassi town in Mohali district.
Additional Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan said the state government has received 1,000 rapid testing kits from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
The two districts of SAS Nagar (Mohali) and Jalandhar have been given 500 kits each to start the rapid testing process, she said, adding the facility is likely to be extended to other districts, according to the situation of suspected cases and availability of rapid testing kits.
–IANS
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