This story is from June 8, 2020

In UP, Covid-19 shifting back to cities, residents must take prevention seriously: Govt

The coronavirus pandemic is slowly shifting back to the cities after showing its presence in the rural areas, said state government officials on Monday
In UP, Covid-19 shifting back to cities, residents must take prevention seriously: Govt
Principal secretary health and family welfare Amit Mohan Prasad
LUCKNOW: The coronavirus pandemic is slowly shifting back to the cities after showing its presence in the rural areas, said state government officials on Monday adding that the onus of Covid-19 prevention now lies with the urban residents.
According to experts, the progression of Covid-19 in the state may be divided into four legs – foreign travellers, Tablighi Jamaat attendees, health workers and hospitals and migrants.
The pandemic infection making a comeback to the cities marks the beginning of the fifth leg.
“Prevention is the only reliable arsenal and hope especially as the country is taking leaps to achieve the peak,” they said.
Urging citizens to take preventive measures seriously, officials said that while we have clear indications that the situation in villages is under control, the risk of spread has moved to the cities again where both population density and general activity are high especially, with everything opening up.
“At the moment, the most important contribution towards curbing the spread of coronavirus is needed from those living in the cities. That’s because the wave of migrant cases is on the decline and in fact it will fade away in a few days. The new gush is coming in urban-dominated districts, particularly in the western UP such as Meerut and Gautam Buddha Nagar,” said principal secretary health and family welfare Amit Mohan Prasad.

“In wake of the observation,” Prasad said, “it is important that urban residents stay extra cautious and work towards prevention of coronavirus spread. This becomes especially crucial as lockdown has almost ended and business as usual is all set to take over. The fact that population density in the cities is higher than villages adds to the importance.”
Officials suggested that any kind of unnecessary public interaction, meetings, movement outside homes must be avoided. “Extra attention must be paid to preventive measures like wearing masks, washing hands with soap and water for at least 30 seconds and following cough hygiene,” the officer said.
About the Covid-19 wave declining in the villages, he said that the state health department got a mega exercise conducted to see if the nigrani samitis were working well or not and also to assess if the home quarantine was followed by the isolated migrants religiously or not.
“For this, general residents from 72 villages across 18 districts where the number of migrants has been quite high, were tested for Covid-19. The villages selected had at least 50 migrants living for at least 15 days. All the 1,700 odd samples taken tested negative which suggests that the risk in villages was under control. It also speaks for the facts that surveillance has been on the right track so far,” Prasad said.
The district selected included Jhansi, Kaushambi, Prayagrah, Azamgarh, Bahraich, Balrampur, Banda, Basti, Chitrakoot, Jalaun, Lakhimpur Kheri, Lalitpur, Mahrajganj, Mirzapur, Sant Kabir Nagar, Shahjahanpur, Siddhartnagar and Sravasti.
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About the Author
Shailvee Sharda

Journalist with the Times of India since August 2004, Shailvee Sharda writes on Health, Culture and Politics. Having covered the length and breadth of UP, she brings stories that define elements like human survival and its struggle, faiths, perceptions and thought processes that govern the decision making in everyday life, during big events such as an election, tangible and non-tangible cultural legacy and the cost and economics of well-being. She keenly follows stories that celebrate hope and life in general.

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