Rural areas in Ggm show signs of becoming Covid hotspots

Gurugram: With Sohna reporting more than 60 cases in the last week, and a large number of cases being reported from areas like Pataudi, Manesar and Farrukh Nagar, rural areas of Gurugram district are now becoming a major concern for authorities here with respect to their containment strategy for COVID-19 and the district administration has now started to address these concerns.

Out of the 103 containment zones in the district, 97 are in Gurugram city while six are located in the rural areas of Sohna and Pataudi. Officials in the Gurugram District Administration mention that they are monitoring the situation in the rural areas and if required they will look into sealing specific areas as and if more cases emerge.

However, official data shows that the number of cases in rural areas is still less than the number being reported from urban centres of the city. Of the 5,829 cases that have been reported till Saturday, 5,259 are from Gurugram city. In rural areas, the maximum number of cases has been reported from the Pataudi block (284) cases, followed by Sohna (162) and Farrukh Nagar (124). Worryingly, there has been a spike in cases in the rural areas over the last week of June and the first week of July.

One of the key concerns here is that medical facilities in these areas are inadequate and residents are dependent on healthcare facilities in Gurugram city for the treatment. With a large number of menial workers getting infected, poor public transport facilities that connect rural areas to Gurugram city is also being seen as a major cause for concern.

Several health workers and officials from the Women and Child Department have now been tasked with screening residents in rural areas and identifying symptomatic patients. Under a special initiative, DCPs and ACPs of Gurugram Police are now also visiting rural areas to spread awareness about COVID-19. Besides, police officials along with health workers are also identifying patients who are possibly hiding symptoms out of fear and stigma.

On the lines of Delhi, the public officials have also begun talks with various religious sects to provide large tracts of land available with them in Gurugram's rural areas for setting up COVID care facilities to house cases.

"Unlike urban areas where there are dense and congested clusters, the situation in rural areas is better and if we can test and isolate quickly, we can prevent the spread," a senior GDA official said.