Delhi's Covid containment zones jump to 421, may increase further
New Delhi: With the Capital's revised COVID-19 containment strategy being implemented in full flow, including the redrawing of containment zones, officials here said that the number of containment zones in Delhi had jumped by over 100 in a day, taking the total count here to 421 as of Sunday.
As per Saturday's health bulletin, Delhi had 315 containment zones, which was also a significant increase compared to the previous day's numbers. However, with the new containment strategy coming into action, Delhi government officials had already said that a surge in the number of these zones is expected as boundaries will be reassessed and redefined according to updated parameters.
Moreover, another aspect of the revised strategy - the house-to-house survey has kicked off, with officials here already having screened around 2.45 lakh people so far. In fact, Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said that all residents living in containment zones will be screened by the end of this month and that all of Delhi would be covered by July 21.
They said the count of containment zones is expected to jump further as the authorities in some districts were yet to complete the task of redrawing such areas following directions that came after a high-level review meeting between the Centre, Delhi government and MCD officials. Under the new rules, the authorities have to delineate containment zones on a micro-level instead of big ones.
Before the re-mapping exercise, the number of containment zones was 280 in the city, an official said. The process of screening every household has to be completed by July 6.
According to the 2011 Census, there were over 34.35 lakh households in the national capital, including 33.56 lakh in urban areas and 79,574 in rural areas. As per the COVID-19 response plan issued by the Delhi government, the re-mapping of the containment zones is to be completed by June 30.
At least 1,100 teams comprising two members each have been formed to screen the national capital's population for COVID-19 infection. The teams are armed with a mobile application called SS Corona, which will send real-time details to a dedicated web portal set up by the government.
Apart from basic details like name, age, address and contact number, the teams are feeding the mobile application with information such as every individual's travel history, whether or not they use the Centre's Aarogya Setu app and if they have symptoms of influenza-like illnesses. The same mobile application is being used to carry out screenings in the COVID-19 containment zones.
