Containment zones in Capital increase to 421

ensure that all clusters are comprehensively brought under aggressive surveillance. The next goal is to accomplish a full health survey of all residents of these containment zones by June 30,” Delhi chief secretary Vijay Dev said.

For the delineation exercise, district health officials located clusters within existing containment zones in order to create micro-containment zones, another senior government official said on condition of anonymity.

Till Friday, when the delineation strategy was finalised by the office of the divisional commissioner, Delhi had 280 containment zones. On Sunday, the number rose to 421, according to records compiled by the Delhi government. An official said the count of such zones could increase further as some of the 11 revenue districts of Delhi were in the process of redrawing the boundaries of their containment areas.

The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), which is chaired by lieutenant governor Anil Baijal, previously sought help of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to draft the revised plan, a senior government official said on condition of anonymity.

The 11 districts in the Capital have also initiated a health survey of more than 250,000 individuals who reside in these containment zones, the official said. This survey was recommended at the meeting held by Shah and the final report was to be drafted by DDMA by Tuesday. As part of the exercise, symptomatic residents in the containment zones will be asked to undergo Covid-19 diagnostic tests through the rapid antigen kits. Tests through new antigen-based devices can be carried out on-site and can provide results within 30 minutes.

The 141 new containment zones have been created by breaking down existing hot spots in neighbourhoods that include Pratap Nagar, Ghanta Ghar in Malkaganj, Alipur, Mahendru Enclave, Jahangirpuri, GTB Nagar, Meet Nagar, Sangam Vihar, Badarpur, Tilak Vihar and Hari Nagar, data shared by the government showed.

Official data showed that the Southwest district has reported a rise of 37 containment zones in the remapping exercise, taking the number of such areas in the district to 80. The North district has 59 containment zones, followed by South (56), Central (40), Shahdara (38), East (33) Southeast (32), Northwest (28), West (25), New Delhi (21) and Northeast (nine).

Containment zones are sealed areas where all residents are put under surveillance and most business and travel activities are prohibited. The areas are periodically sanitised and essential goods are delivered to people’s doorsteps so that residents do not have to venture out. The entry and exit of these areas are also restricted and monitored by the police and government authorities to contain the spread of the disease. Within the containment zones, testing centres are set up to boost the surveillance and control of the infectious disease.

According to the findings of an advisory committee of the central government, 19% of the Covid-19 cases in Delhi so far have originated in containment zones. About 45% of these cases have been found in smaller clusters within such zones.

Jugal Kishore, head of the community medicine department at the Safdarjung Hospital, said: “Such a policy helps implement better surveillance in containment zones, which gets difficult when the sealed area is too large and has a high population. It also helps in early detection of hidden cases. Also, the containment policy has a negative psychological impact. So, fewer numbers of people in a containment zone is better.”

On June 21, the Centre and the Delhi government decided to revamp the action plan to control the spread of Covid-19 in the national capital, laying emphasis on the need for more effective containment and tracing efforts, widening the scope of detecting infections, and intensifying social distancing and surveillance at the ground level.

Union home minister Shah chaired the meeting attended by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, deputy CM Manish Sisodia, lieutenant governor Baijal, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan and other senior officials. One of the key recommendations discussed at the meeting was an improved containment tactic under which the boundaries of such areas would be redrawn to tackle a surge in the cases. On Sunday, Delhi reported 2,889 fresh Covid-19 cases, taking the total number of infections to 83,077. So far, 2,633 people have died of the disease in the national capital.

The other strategies in the new action plan include health surveys for people residing inside and outside containment zones, a serological survey of 20,000 people, and strengthening existing contact-tracing and surveillance policies.