As the surveillance for COVID-19 started in Meerut division on Friday, the Uttar Pradesh government ruled out community transmission of coronavirus infection, saying that the random sampling of vendors showed less than 1 per cent of them were infected.
Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said here on Friday that during a random sampling of vendors, including street hawkers, vegetable vendors and others, in all the 75 districts, the good result was that not even one per cent of them were found coronavirus positive .
“The department had collected 5,508 samples of these vendors and of them just 60 were found positive, which is less than one per cent,” he said, adding that this clearly showed that there was no community transmission of the virus.
Special surveillance work started in the six districts of Meerut division from Thursday when teams went for door-to door-surveys and screening of people. There are around 7,485 teams in the six districts that will conduct house-to-house survey. Gram and mohalla nigrani samitis have been asked to assist the health teams in Meerut division. There are 2,375 gram and 1,516 mohalla nigrani samitis in these six districts.
Prasad said that Covid helpdesks had been set up in all the hospitals, government offices, police stations and other places and they were screening people in large numbers.
“Over 4,444 helpdesks have been set up in government hospitals, 3,564 in private hospitals, 1,569 in police departments, 140 in PAC, 71 in jails and in all the 75 collectorates along with other places,” the additional chief secretary said.
He said there had been a spike in coronavirus cases in the last few days because of the Covid helpdesks which were identifying coronavirus suspects and pushing them for tests.
Prasad also appealed to the people to participate in large numbers in the competition of one minute video on prevention of COVID-19 and ideas on prevent coronavirus spread in 150 words. 
“In both the categories, the 10 best entries would be given Rs 10,000 cash prize each. People can send their entries on WhatsApp number 8005192995 or email to oneminuteforcovid@gmail.com,” he said.
The last day for sending the entries is July 8 and the result will be announced on July 15.
Prasad said that 27,565 tests were carried out on Thursday and with this the total number of Covid tests in the state had gone up to 8,10,991. Of these tests, 2,140 were 5-sample 5 pool tests and 317 10-sample pools tests. In the 5-sample 5 pool tests, 229 were found positive and in the 10-sample pool tests, 49 were found positive.
At present around 1.57 lakh health teams have covered 1.15 crore houses in the state and screened over 5.87 crore people in 25,590 areas, including 10,102 hotspots. There are 7,467 people in the isolation wards of Covid hospitals and 4,509 in institutional quarantine.