Ahmedabad civic body rolls out medical surveillance vans
Earlier in the day, the Gujarat government decided toimplement a cluster containment plan across 15 localities inAhmedabad, Bhavnagar, Vadodara and Surat in view of growingnumber of coronavirus cases, a week ahead of the nationallockdown ends on April 14.
Meanwhile, these vans, which will cater to seven zonesin the city, were flagged off from the premises of the AMCheadquarters in the presence of Municipal Commissioner VijayNehra.
Each van will be accompanied by a three-membersurveillance team equipped with a thermal gun and threepersonnel who will collect samples. Both these teams are ledby two doctors, said Nehra.
"These vans are being rolled out as part of ourintensive surveillance and testing strategy. Initially, wewill cover people who are living in different clusters wherecoronavirus patients were found.
"We are planning to check each suspect and collecthis/her samples using these vans by today evening," Nehra toldreporters.
He said surveillance teams would first check bodytemperature of all the people living in a cluster using athermal gun.
"If fever is detected then that particular person willbe taken into the van for sample collection. We will collectsamples on the spot using these vans. This proactivesurveillance will help us in testing a large number of peopleand thereby detecting coronavirus cases in less time," saidNehra.
Out of the total 165 coronavirus positive casesreported in Gujarat so far, the highest number of cases at 77were reported in Ahmedabad alone.
Out of the 19 cases reported across Gujarat onTuesday, 13 were traced to Ahmedabad.
Out of the seven clusters which were put under massquarantine in the city, three are in Kalupur and Dariyapurlocalities. PJT PDNSK NSK