NOIDA: A 27-year-old inmate of a Noida jail, who was admitted to LLRM Medical College in Meerut and tested positive for Covid during treatment, died on Friday. His death was added to Ghaziabad’s tally, which rose to four in the current wave.
Officials explained that though the medical college was situated in Meerut, it was considered a dedicated health facility for Ghaziabad. So, if Covid patients referred to the hospital from Noida or Ghaziabad die there, they would be added to Ghaziabad’s tally.
Health officials said the jail inmate had been admitted to the Meerut hospital on January 15 with complaints of weight loss, fever, cough and breathlessness for over two weeks. He also tested positive for Covid there.
He had earlier been admitted to the District Hospital in Noida and was then referred to LLRM after his condition deteriorated. He was put on a ventilator for three hours and suffered a cardiopulmonary arrest on Friday. The man, doctors said, was a habitual smoker and drinker and the status of his vaccination was unknown. In the current wave, a total 6 persons have died in Noida and Ghaziabad. Noida, so far, has reported only two deaths. Two of Ghaziabad’s four deaths were reported on Thursday.
Daily cases, meanwhile, almost halved in Ghaziabad on Friday, when 780 people tested positive in the district. The positivity rate also went down by 9%. Noida, however, registered 1,489 new cases on Friday.
Health officials said the numbers might hover around the same range over the next few days, after which a dip in daily cases was likely.
According to the state bulletin, Lucknow reported the highest number of new cases on Friday — 2,290 —and two deaths related to Covid. It was followed by Noida (1,489), Meerut (1,020 and two deaths), Ghaziabad (780 and one death) and Varanasi (673 and one death)
On Friday, a total of 12,672 vaccine doses were administered across several groups in Noida. In Ghaziabad, the number of shots given on Friday was 31,097. While precautionary doses have been given to 18,374 people in Noida, Ghaziabad has so far given booster doses to 23,000 recipients.
The Ghaziabad chemists and druggists association, meanwhile, handed over medicines worth Rs 30 lakh to the health department for better management of Covid.
