The Arvind Kejriwal government on Wednesday said that all houses in Delhi will be screened by July 6 as a part of its new response plan to contain the spread of the coronavirus, NDTV. Meanwhile, houses in the containment zones will be screened by June 30.
The national Capital saw an increase of 3,947 new cases on Tuesday, taking the total to 66,602 with 2,301 deaths. This is the biggest single-day jump in the number of cases so far. Delhi is the second worst-hit state by the coronavirus pandemic after Maharashtra.
The new guidelines under the “Delhi Covid Response Plan” was released after a series of meetings between Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal last week. On June 21, Shah had directed the Delhi government to demarcate containment zones afresh and ramp up house-to-house surveillance. Delhi has 261 containment zones.
Surveillance and contact tracing will be also strengthened in the worst-affected neighbourhoods to break the chain of transmission of the virus, the Delhi government said. “More than 2,500 new cases and upto 75 deaths [are] being reported every day,” it added. “About 45% of the cases are showing features of clustering [in containment zones].”
The authorities will also use CCTV cameras to monitor the movement of people in containment zones. “Administration will provide all necessary services inside these zones,” the order said, adding that arrangements will be made to send patients to designated care centres in densely populated areas.
According to the revised strategy, a strict monitoring plan will also be implemented at the district-level. The coronavirus task force will have district commissioner of police, civic body officials, epidemiologists from the municipal corporation of Delhi, and IT professionals to monitor the Centre’s Aarogya Setu app, used for contact-tracing of the patients. Earlier, the task force was headed by the district magistrates. “All symptomatic and asymptomatic high-risk contacts have to be tested between the fifth and tenth day of contact,” the new rules said.
A serological survey will start in Delhi from June 27 and the results will be released on July 10. Twenty-thousand samples will be collected for this. These surveys are used to quantify the proportion of people who are positive for a particular antibody.
In last four days, the city has had 3,000 or more cases each day, and according to the government’s estimates, there will be one lakh cases by June 30, 2.25 lakh cases by July 15, and 5.5 lakh cases by July 31.
Also read: Several states are going door-to-door to identify Covid-19 patients. Is it a good idea?
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!