With five people who returned to Uttarakhand from different parts of the country testing positive for Covid-19 in the past two days, the Uttarakhand government is apprehensive that 25,000 people could be infected. Meanwhile, more than 1.87 lakh more people have registered to come back to the state.
Chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Saturday during a Facebook live session with an organisation said that the government is expecting around 2.25 lakh people to return to the state from different parts of the country, out of which it is being anticipated that 25,000 people could be infected.
“We are making all preparations with regard to boosting our health infrastructure and installing intensive care units and ventilators at government hospitals in all the districts. We are expecting that around 2-2.25 lakh people will be returning to the state and it is being anticipated that around 25,000 of them could be infected. Out of these 25,000, there might be a need to hospitalise around 5000 people of which 500 might need ventilators,” said Rawat.
“Thus looking at the extreme possible scenario, we are preparing to deal with the situation and boosting our infrastructure accordingly. We cannot leave our people on the roads,” added the chief minister.
One person, who returned to the hilly district of Uttarkashi on May 7 from Surat in Gujarat, tested positive on Sunday. This is the first case in the green zone district of Uttarkashi. With this, total of 68 positive cases have been reported from Uttarakhand so far, with 21 active cases and 46 recovered.
On May 7, four people reached Chinyalisaur in Uttarkashi district from Surat on two bikes when one of them a 32-year-old man was isolated at the district hospital after he showed symptoms and three others were quarantined at a health facility. The man who was isolated in the hospital tested positive on Sunday.
Dr DP Joshi, chief medical officer of Uttarkashi said that the other three youths have also been isolated and their samples have been sent for testing.
“The man who tested positive on Sunday came in contact with his brother, therefore he has also been isolated. As a precautionary measure we have stopped movement of vehicles in the district hospital,” said Dr Joshi.
On Saturday, four persons including those who returned from Gujarat, Haryana and Mumbai to Udham Singh Nagar district had tested positive. All these people returned using their travel arrangements and not the government arranged transport. Officials said that some persons had used multiple modes of transport making the process of contact tracing difficult.
Speaking on the challenges in front of the government with people returning in private vehicles, Madan Kaushik, cabinet minister and official spokesperson for the Uttarakhand government said that the government is finding it difficult to manage those who are returning to the state using private vehicles.
So far, the state government has received around 15,000 registrations for those wanting to return in private vehicles.
“People returning to the state in their private vehicles are not always following all the norms of home quarantine. We have learnt that they are first staying at their relatives’ places in the plains for a few days before going to their village and there also not following home quarantine strictly. I appeal to them to strictly follow all norms for their own and families’ safety,” said Kaushik.
When asked about what is the strategy of the the state government now, Nitesh Jha, secretary for health in the state said, “With hundreds of people returning to the state every day and positive cases being reported from hilly districts like Uttarkashi, the only strategy of the state government is to test, isolate and treat.”
Abhishek Tripathi, chief operational officer for Covid-19 in the state said that checking at border points of the state is being intensified now.
“The person who tested positive from Uttarkashi on Sunday, was stopped at the district border itself along with those he was travelling with and was immediately quarantined at the district hospital. We cannot ensure institutional quarantine for everybody and that is why home quarantine is a must, where they are being monitored regularly by ASHA and aaganwadi workers,” said Tripathi.
Uttarakhand has so far tested 9,668 samples with maximum tests being conducted in Dehradun, Haridwar, Nainital and Udham Singh Nagar districts.
As per the health bulletin released by the state government on Sunday, out of total samples tested only 0.75% samples have tested positive in Uttarakhand. The percentage recovery for COVID-19 patient in the state stands at 67.65%, with 46 out of 68 cases having successfully recovered.
