Number of containment zones in Gurugram down from 115 to 96
The district administration on Tuesday released a revised order regarding the number of containment zones in the district to restrict the spread of Covid-19. As of September 29, there are 96 such containment zones in Gurugram, where public mobility continues to be restricted, and where testing camps continue to administer antigen tests to the community at large. Three weeks ago, on September 8, there were 115 containment zones.
Once declared a containment zone by the deputy commissioner (who also serves as the chairperson of the district disaster management authority) under the Haryana Epidemic Disease Act, 1897 and the Haryana Epidemic Disease, Covid-19 Regulations, 2020, an area may be denotified after a period of two weeks, if no new positive cases are detected in the area. “During these two weeks, we typically scale up surveillance by administering antigen tests at large, conducting door-to-door screening camps and reserving a larger share of RT PCR tests for PHCs in these areas,” said Dr Jai Prakash Sharma, district surveillance officer, Gurugram.
Tigra and Khandsa localities, with clusters of densely populated and often informal housing settlements, have the highest number of containment zones in the district at 23 and 12, respectively. However, improvements were seen in areas, such as Chanderlok, Badshahpur and Patel Nagar. While the former two now have under five containment zones each, Patel Nagar (a long-standing hotspot) has been denotified as a containment zone, as per the deputy commissioner’s latest order.