Surat Launches Green, White Health Card System to Prevent COVID-19 ‘Super Spreaders’

Surat Municipal Corporation in Gujarat has introduced health cards for grocers, vendors, drivers and all other essential workers to make people they come in contact with aware of the card holders' vaccination status.

Surat: In a big move to spread awareness and protect people from getting infected, Surat Municipal Corporation in Gujarat has introduced a green health card for grocers, vendors, drivers and all other essential workers in the city to make people they come in contact with aware that the card-holder has been vaccinated against COVID-19 with at least one or both doses.

“The green health card will tell customers that people employed in such categories do not pose the risk of spreading the virus,” the civic official said and added, “These categories, as they come in contact with a large number of people in their line of work, can be ‘potential super spreaders’ and it is for this reason that the SMC introduced the coloured health card system.”

Deputy Municipal Commissioner Ashish Naik said those who had not been vaccinated or even tested for the virus would be given white health cards. “These people will have to get themselves tested once every week and would be allowed to work only after their report returns negative,” Naik said.

“Green health card-holders will no longer need weekly COVID-19 tests. We have already issued 89,000 white and 10,000 green cards so far,” he added.

Surat city has a caseload of 1,09,371 as of Saturday, including 1,607 deaths, while 1,05,562 have been discharged post-recovery.

Meanwhile, Gujarat on Sunday recorded 1,871 new COVID-19 cases, its lowest one-day infection count since March 25 this year. These new cases took the state’s overall tally to 8,07,488, the state health department said. A total of 25 COVID-19 patients died in the last 24 hours, which is also the lowest one-day fatality count in Gujarat since April 8.

These new cases took the state’s overall tally to 8,07,488, while the death toll increased to 9,815, the department said in a statement. District-wise, Vadodara reported the highest number of 315 fresh cases, followed by Ahmedabad with 245 cases, Surat 197, Rajkot 165, Junagadh 108, Jamnagar 71, and Bhavnagar 66, among others.

With PTI inputs