14 more test COVID-19 positive in UP's Gautam Buddh Nagar; district tally rises to 359

Fourteen more people, including nine from a media house, tested positive for coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Buddh Nagar on Monday, taking the total number of infected in the district to 359, officials said.

The entire building of the media house in sector 16A has been sealed by the district authorities for sanitisation, they said.

"On Monday, 14 people have been found positive for COVID-19 and total positive cases till date stand at 359. Five patients were discharged on Monday and a total 235 patients have recovered so far. There are 119 active cases now," District Surveillance Officer Sunil Dohare said in a statement.

Among the new patients, 10 are employees of Zee Media, nine of whom are locals and one is from Delhi, a senior official told PTI.

"A total of 10 employees of a private company located at Sector 16a in Noida tested positive. All patients were in institutional quarantine. Nine patients belong to Gautam Buddh Nagar and one patient was cross notified to Delhi," according to the statement.

A 39-year-old employee of Zee Media from Delhi had tested positive for COVID-19 on May 15. The media house had then initiated mass testing, while the district health department launched a contact-tracing exercise.

On May 18, 28 of the company's employees were found positive for COVID-19, of which 15 were locals and the remaining from Delhi, Faridabad and Gurgaon.

Meanwhile, the district administration said it has sealed the entire building of Zee Media in sector 16A in the wake of the new cases.

"The entire building will be sanitised and entry of employees has been stopped till the building is sanitized and is free from COVID-19 infection. After due sanitisation and following the protocol, the health team will issue premises fitness certificate after which the building shall be allowed to resume its operations," the surveillance officer said in a statement.

Five other patients were found positive for COVID-19 on Monday — a 55-year-old man from sector 105, a 63-year-old man from sector 12, an 11-year-old boy from sector 5, a 24-year-old man from Salarpur village and a 36-year-old woman from sector 36, the statement said.

All patients have been shifted to hospital for treatment, the officer said.

Dohare said 10,222 samples have been collected in Gautam Buddh Nagar so far for COVID-19 testing.

"Since yesterday, 199 samples were sent to government laboratories and 144 to private laboratories for testing of COVID-19," he said.

Gautam Buddh Nagar in western UP has so far recorded five deaths -- all of them males aged above 60 years, according to the officials.