The administration of Uttar Pradesh’s Gautam Buddh Nagar district on Wednesday began conducting random coronavirus tests on people coming from Delhi, amid a surge in cases in the Capital, PTI reported.

Teams of health officials were deployed at the Delhi-Noida-Direct flyway and Chilla, which are two popular points of entry to Noida from Delhi.

Gautam Buddh Nagar Chief Medical Officer Deepak Ohri said that the officials were doing rapid antigen tests on the commuters randomly, to ensure that the movement of traffic is not affected. “If anyone is found positive, they are sent back to Delhi,” he was quoted as saying by PTI. “Only those testing negative are allowed to enter Noida.”

Ohri added that medical officials also plan to carry out tests in Ashok Nagar and the Botanical Garden Metro Station.

Gautam Buddh Nagar District Magistrate Suhas LY had on Tuesday said that testing at entry points will be done to assess the spread of infection. “It would help in issuing advisories to employers and organisations, where a large number of people work and commute between Gautam Buddh Nagar and adjacent areas, so that the spread of infection is contained to a large extent,” he added, according to PTI.

The district magistrate had added that the officials will make an assessment about the number of commuters to be tested, a day after the exercise begins, according to Hindustan Times.

Gautam Buddh Nagar has registered 20,566 cases and 73 deaths so far, PTI reported, citing government data.

Delhi has witnessed a spurt in coronavirus cases since October 28 when the daily rise breached the 5,000-mark for the first time and it crossed the 8,000-mark on November 11. On Tuesday, Delhi recorded 6,396 cases and 99 new deaths. The Capital’s tally rose to 4,95,598 and the toll reached 7,812.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, meanwhile, said that his government will write to the Centre for permission to shut some markets, which could be potential hotspots, and cap the number of guests at weddings at 50.

The Centre had stepped in again to control the coronavirus situation in the Capital. On Tuesday, the union health ministry listed the actions taken by the Centre to tackle the coronavirus situation in Delhi. These include increasing the number of all beds and doubling the tests conducted daily to 1-1.2 lakh.

Also read:

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  3. Why is Covid-19 surging in Delhi eight months after the pandemic started?

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