Coronavirus: Vadodara declares second red zone, area with 1,800 homes sealed

The clinic became a center of the COVID-19 scare after a 22-year-old BHMS doctor — a resident of Nagarwada who ran its OPD from March 29 till April 5 — tested positive on Tuesday, a day after his 15-year-old brother had tested positive. Three other family members of the doctor also tested positive on Wednesday.

In a late-night meeting at the Urban Health Center in the vicinity of Tandalja, Officer on Special Duty Vinod Rao, Commissioner of Police Anupam Singh Gahlaut, VMC health officials and Police Inspectors of JP Road police station discussed possible methods to seal 37 residential colonies and 1,831 homes, with a population of around 7,000 people, to prevent the spread of the virus and identifying those who have come in contact with the COVID-19 positive doctor.

The young homeopathic doctor rendered his services to the hospital for about a week after the lockdown had been imposed. The hospital trust said that it has submitted a list of 29 patients whom the doctor checked during the week of him being attached to the hospital.

Sajid Patel, president of the Muawin Charitable Trust, which has run the hospital for the past eight years, told this newspaper, “When the government of Gujarat declared the lockdown until March 31, the regular doctors attached to the hospital decided to return to their homes in Bhavnagar and other places. So, I had requested a renowned doctor attached to the SSG hospital to recommend a young doctor who could do simple consultations and help patients at this time of lockdown. He recommended this BHMS doctor. He joined us on March 29 and was working for seven days until April 4. We had already reduced the consulting time from four hours, twice a day, to only three hours in the evening. But since it came to light that his brother has tested positive, we followed the instruction of the VMC health department and closed the hospital on Monday.”

The clinic has 11 allopathic specialists including physicians and gynecologists on regular days. The president said, “Only this doctor and a staff member to assist him were at the hospital until it was closed. We are extending complete cooperation to the authorities.” He added that the hospital shared the records and mobile numbers of 29 patients who had visited the clinic during the one week.

According to VMC health officer Dr Devesh Patel, 28 of those in the list have already been traced and sampled. Dr Patel said, “This 22-year-old doctor was asymptomatic and turned positive only when we tested him, as one of his close contacts (brother) from Nagarwada tested positive on Monday. Right now, we are not able to confirm the source of the infection. We cannot say if the virus first infected the 15-year-old contact and he transmitted it to his brother and family, or the other way round. We are now mass sampling people from Tandalja.”

On Thursday morning, the civic body also conducted a massive disinfection drive in the area. Dr Patel added that tracing the travel history of multiple people has turned into an uphill task. “We have sought help from the police department to trace the location of many people from the areas who may not be coming forth with their actual travel history, in order to ascertain the source of the increasing infections,” said Devesh Patel.

The decision to contain Tandalja came three days after 600 homes with 3,200 persons in Nagarwada area were declared a red zone and cordoned off, Tandalja became Vadodara’s second red zone. Officer on Special Duty, Vinod Rao told this newspaper, “The hospital has been sealed since the positive patient had been attached here and also interacted with locals. It is now necessary to cordon off this area.”

Rao confirmed that 15 entry and exit points to the area have been sealed and about three other entry and exit points will also be sealed soon. “The need to contain this area is to avoid the infection to spread to other parts of the city as well as between people living here. Our medical teams are going door to door to check each and every one of the 1831 homes and 7000 people and even minor symptoms will be considered seriously and the Covid19 samples will be collected from the doorstep. The report will come within a day and we will immediately shift any suspected cases to the facilities. The people of the area have given us complete support during this total lockdown within the red zone.”

24 people out for morning walk arrested: Police

Twenty-four people from Vadodara were arrested on Thursday morning for stepping out for a morning walk and violating the guidelines of the nationwide lockdown, the police said. These people were spotted by the surveillance squad of Sayajigunj police station officers during their patrolling duty.

According to the police, the 24 people were found on an early morning walk around Kamatibaug, Narhari circle and Rosary School road areas. The arrested people are residents of societies in nearby areas including Paratagunj and Fatehgunj.

They were booked under IPC sections 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) and 269 (Negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life). They were later released on bail the same day.

“We have been issuing warnings to not venture out of the house until and unless very much necessary during the ongoing lockdown. A lot of people venture out in the morning citing they are out for walks, which can also lead to gatherings. Our surveillance team was patrolling these particular areas today, when we found the violators and arrested them,” said SG Solanki, Sayajingunj police inspector.