In view of the new COVID mutants surfacing in the country, the Uttar Pradesh government is initiating focused sampling schedules in Lucknow from today onwards. As a part of this exercise, the targeted sampling drives will be conducted in areas that logged a large count of infections during the first and second waves of accelerated infections. Aimed at arresting the third COVID wave in the state capital, this program will be implemented via an extensive plan of action.
Lucknow divided into 24 sectors for the latest sampling drive
According to the new Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Lucknow, Manoj Agrawal, the entire expanse of the city has been fractionated into 24 sectors for this initiative. As per the available information, 70 Rapid Response teams will be deployed in each sector and they will make sure that samples of all suspected cases are quickly collected.
If any individual tests positive for the presence of the COVID virus, his/her sample would be analysed through genome sequencing to determine the type of the strain. It has been stated that the testing program shall cover local residents and visitors from other states too.
A step towards preventing unchecked chain of infections
It is important to note that special testing camps are already operational at the airport, railway station and bus stops. This helps in the quick identification of infected individuals upon their entry into the city. As per records, 2,38,537 cases have been recorded in Lucknow till now and a large chunk of these infections were witnessed during the second wave.
Further, regional distribution records indicate that around 41% of these cases were reported from Aliganj, Chinhat, Alambagh, N K Road, Sarojini Nagar Chowk, Kaiserbagh, Aishbagh and other Old City areas. Now, the sampling drive is being executed with an objective to prevent an accentuated spread of the virus through unchecked transmission. Besides, the identification of new variants shall further help in making a better assessment of the current situation.
Lucknow COVID update
On Thursday, 3 new infections and 7 recoveries were recorded in Lucknow while the count of fatalities remained at zero. Notably, not a single COVID-related death has been logged in Lucknow in the past few weeks and the city has a fairly controlled count of active cases with 82 infected patients currently.
– With inputs from IANS
