IN TELANGANA, ANDHRA, ALMOST ALL COVID HOTSPOTS LINKED TO TABLIGHI JAMAAT

The fresh guidelines from the Centre have prompted states to create Covid-19 containment zones where special focus will be laid on isolating the persons within and cutting it off from the outside world for a minimum period of 14 days, a kind of strict lockdown. Even if a single new positive case is detected in this area, the lockdown period would be extended further.

Telangana Health Minister Etela Rajender told this newspaper that around 90% of the positive cases in the state were related to the Delhi congregation. “If there were no Tablighi-linked cases, Telangana would have been free of Covid by now. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s (KCR’S) prediction that the state would be free of Covid cases by 7 April, would have come true,” said the minister.

This new approach of Covid containment zones management has come into force from Thursday all over the state. A multi-modal mechanism, including police, medical and health staff, sanitation workers and civil supplies officials, would take care of these zones. These 130 zones would be served by around 1,300 teams round-the-clock.

This model was first tested in Karimnagar city from 17 March when some Indonesians who came from Delhi after attending the Tablighi event were found positive. The Centre has directed the state to cordon off the entire cluster of households where these persons were located or moved around. Now, the city is back to normalcy after the Indonesians tested negative.

“Each containment zone consists of 4,000 to 7,000 houses and not a single person would be allowed to come out and roam around. We have closed all lanes and by-lanes connecting these zones and round-the-clock vigil has been maintained. All essential services and supplies would be taken care of by the teams manning the zones,” said Telangana DGP Mahender

Reddy.

As many as 115 zones are spread in 22 out of the total districts, while the rest are located in Hyderabad city. As there are complaints that some of the persons from the most affected areas are willfully moving around to spread the virus, the police have kept a vigil over their movements. The police have introduced a control room to check if people of these zones move more than 3 km away from their homes.

Hyderabad Mayor Bonthu Rama Mohan told this newspaper that the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation made arrangements for supply of vegetables, milk, rice and other food items to the doors of the people in these zones. “For any medical emergency, the people here should dial 100 or 104 for ambulance services,” he said.

A large number of police personnel was deployed in Hyderabad and other cities where Muslims were concentrated, to prevent mass gatherings at mosques on Friday. Thanks to appeals made by the religious leaders and others, the Friday prayers went off peacefully. Devotees were not allowed to come out of their homes to offer prayers.

This cluster containment zones approach is a latest development in the Centre’s approach to deal with the unabated Covid menace. Instead of locking down the entire city or town, the officials are now locking down a particular area, thus limiting inconveniences to the public. Moreover, lockdown in a locality can be better enforced.

The police are taking the help of local healthy youth to implement the zones’ lockdown and calling them as “Gully Warriors”. These boys or girls trained in basic sanitation are roped in to identify those who move around out of the restricted areas. “This will enhance community participation in implementing the Covid containment zones,” said a police official from Bade Masjid zone near Nampally in the city.