Uttar Pradesh revamps Covid-19 containment zone strategy. Details here

With daily cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) rising in Uttar Pradesh, the state government has revamped the scope of what would constitute a containment zone, Hindustan Times’ sister publication Live Hindustan has reported.

According to orders issued by chief secretary Rajendra Kumar Tiwari, a 25-metre containment zone would be set up if one positive Covid-19 case is detected, while a 50-metre containment zone would be established if more than one positive case is found. Twenty houses would fall within the 25-metre containment zone and the corresponding figure is 60 for the 50-metre one, the order says.

The order also says that an area would remain a containment zone for 14 days from the date of sample collection of the last positive case of the viral disease. If no fresh infection is found for 14 days from the date of sample collection of the last positive case, that area would be delisted as a containment zone. For multi-storeyed buildings, the floor on which the positive case of the coronavirus disease has been found will be declared a containment zone. The district surveillance officer is required to inform the district immunisation officer about daily new cases in a containment zone.

In case of more than one positive case of the coronavirus disease in the area, it would be considered as a cluster. Marking its central point as the epicentre, a containment zone would be set up over a 50-metre radius. Teams would be deployed to inspect houses within each containment zone; each team would visit the houses in the area assigned to them and prepare a work report on the prescribed form. A health worker, a village development panchayati raj worker and a member of the local administration would comprise each team. They would conduct a door-to-door visit of houses in their respective areas and inform people of the symptoms of Covid-19, and ways to avoid contracting the disease.

Uttar Pradesh reported 4,614 fresh cases and 31 related fatalities on Sunday, according to the state's health department. This is the highest death toll in the state this year and also the first time since October 2020 that there were more than 30 deaths in a single day. On October 15 last year, 36 people succumbed to the disease.

The northern state’s Covid-19 tally and death toll are at 630,059 and 8,881 respectively. Lucknow, its capital city, logged 1,129 Covid-19 cases and eight deaths.