NOIDA: After Lotus Boulevard was identified as a focus area for containment, several RWAs in Noida have been reporting Covid cases in their societies to the administration with requests for testing and surveillance. These include Prateek Wisteria (16 cases), Sector 50 (six cases) and Elite Homz (9 cases).
Concurrently, in a throwback to the pandemic’s first wave, RWAs in some areas have started shutting down common areas like pools, gyms and clubs to avoid gatherings.
The apartment owners’ association of Prateek Wisteria in Sector 77 is among those to have requested the administration to send health teams to the society for screening. Since there are no guidelines yet on steps to be taken by the RWAs, the society has decided to keep some of the facilities closed for now.
“We have consulted district administration officials and informed residents that all parks, the clubhouse, gym, swimming pool and kids’ sports area will be closed till April 15. We are also asking residents to keep children and the elderly indoors and avoid gatherings at the temple,” said Amit Gupta, president, Prateek Wisteria AOA.
Since most Covid-19 positive patients are in home isolation, RWAs and AOAs said such steps were necessary to stop the virus from spreading within the society. Some RWA officials have also expressed worry about unreported cases.
Deepak Kumar Jha, AOA president of Elite Homz in Sector 77, said that while they had nine active cases in the past five days, there was no directive from the administration on how to go forward. “For now, we have asked that the elderly not go out for walks and not more than four people should visit the gym at a time,” Jha said.
The administration said there are no guidelines for RWAs now, but directives may be issued if cases rise. District magistrate Suhas LY said, “We are waiting for now and will assess the situation again in a few days. Till then, RWAs can take steps at their own level with consensus. However, if there are societies where we get to know of violation of norms like social distancing, we may take action, including sealing the area if required.”
Officials admitted there would be unreported cases and it was a concern. “Even in Prateek Wisteria, we got to know of people who got tests in labs that do not report the cases to us. We request that all such patients self-declare so that we can facilitate their health checks and contact tracing,” a senior health department official said.
In GB Nagar, there are around 10 government and private centres that are registered with the UP Covid portal and regularly upload their reports. Some of the recognised labs include GIMS, NIB, Max, Sharda, Jaypee, Kailash and SRL (Fortis).
