All-hands-on-deck effort helps contain Covid in Karnal district

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, April 14

Till April 3, everything was going well in Karnal. But then a 58-year-old farmer of Rasin village tested positive at PGI-Chandigarh and died on April 5. The biggest challenge for the district administration and health teams was to trace the source of the farmer’s infection — he did not have any travel history. In the next three days, four more tested Covid-positive, putting Karnal into the Orange Zone. It is now believed that the deceased passed on the virus to his son, a doctor and two staff nurses.

The administration swung into action and took a slew of measures and ensured lockdown compliance with an iron hand. It minimised public contact by halting distribution of ration and cooked food by NGOs, stepped up vigil on inter-state and inter-district borders, provided home delivery for grocery and other essential items through mobile app ‘NeedsOnWheels’, issued limited-movement passes, fixed timing for medical stores, set up a live tracker for those in home quarantine among and other steps. Focus on containment zones comprising Rasin, Birchpur, Shekhpura Sohana and Ashoka Colony and also on buffer zones helped check spread of the virus. The district’s first Covid case also served as a wake-up call for the public, particularly in rural areas, who were not taking the lockdown seriously. They not only started observing restrictions imposed, but also set up ‘thikri nakas’ in villages and urban localities to stop entry of outsiders.

Deputy Commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav said the administration shifted focus to the containment and buffer zones after the first case. “We scanned each and every person. As many as 999 micro-level management committees comprising an aanganwadi worker, ANM and BLO have visited 1.90 lakh households and scanned residents for the virus, besides gathering information on problems being faced by them,” he said.

The Adopt-a-Family campaign, a unique scheme that won Central Government praise, did its bit by reaching out to the needy. “So far, we have received around Rs 80 lakh from people to ensure rations and other items for the needy,” the DC said.

SP Surinder Singh Bhoria said strict lockdown compliance by his force also helped a lot in containing Covid. “We divided the district into six zones for effective supervision. As many as 32 patrolling parties are on their toes and 48 nakas have been set up to keep a vigil on violators. The police has registered 84 cases against the violators and arrested 120 persons. As many as 2,490 vehicles have been challaned, 856 impounded and a fine of Rs 1.7 crore collected,” he said.

Only 2 active cases

The early recovery of three patients, who have since been discharged from the hospital, also boosted the morale of the Health Department and the district authorities. Now, the district has only two active positive cases. “The good news for us is that three patients have been sent home from hospital after their two consecutive reports returned negative. Now, we have two active patients,” said Civil Surgeon Dr Ashwani Ahuja.

KCGMC lab speeds up testing

DC Nishant Kumar Yadav said starting of the Covid testing lab at the Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College in Karnal helped expedite results of suspect patients and aided better planning. “Earlier, we sent samples for testing to BPS Medical College in Khanpur (Sonepat) and the result was received in 25-30 hours. Now this time has come down to 8-10 hours,” he said. The lab is the state’s third Covid-testing facility.