As cases spike, Delhi has 3,047 containment zones in place to check virus spread
With Covid-19 cases shooting up due to the ongoing festive season rush, the number of containment zones in the city have exceeded 3,000, government records showed.
As on Wednesday, Delhi had 3,047 containment zones, with 117 new ones created in the last 48 hours.
The city on Wednesday notched a record 5,673 new covid-19 cases – the highest single day spike so far – breaking its own record of 4,853 new cases a day earlier, records showed.
Government records further showed that the south-west revenue district (558) has the highest number of containment zones, followed by the south district (505). They are followed by west (333), New Delhi (275) and central Delhi (267). North-east Delhi, despite being the one with the highest population-density, has the lowest number of containment zones at 82.
Delhi has 11 revenue districts.
Government records also showed that the district officials have till date scaled down containment measures in as many as 3,610 containment zones and they are currently scaling down containment efforts in 1,177 of them even though they are officially yet to be de-notified as containment zones.
The Central government had on Tuesday praised Delhi’s containment efforts, saying nearly 50% of cases surfacing in the city were located in containment zones. “We have seen the efforts that were being made to contain the disease spread in Delhi that has led to about 50% of the cases being reported from designated containment zones,” Dr VK Paul, member of Niti Aayog who heads a committee of experts, had said.
Earlier this month, another expert committee jointly headed by Paul and the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) had flagged in a revised covid-19 document that the Capital could witness as many as 15,000 new Covid-19 cases per day in the winters.
A senior Delhi government official said, “The government is aggressively creating micro containment zones. It is important to mention that the focus of the government is on creating smaller containment zones so that lesser people are affected and more active cases can be brought under scaled up surveillance. The status of the containment zones is periodically reviewed.”
“Under the new policy, several residences which have more than one covid-19 case in the family, assigned home isolation, have been notified as containment zones. The policy of micro containment zones has enabled the districts to scatter containment zones to conform with the scattered nature of cases,” said the official who did not wish to be identified.