NEW DELHI: The total number of containment zones in the national capital after re-mapping of such areas shot up to 421 on Sunday, an increase of 141 zones — in the last two days. Delhi overtook Mumbai as the city worst affected by coronavirus in the country with 83,077 positive cases and 2,623 deaths.
The re-mapping process of containment zones will continue till the first week of July and more such hotspot areas are expected to be added to the list. Inside these zones, the Delhi government follows a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) limit the spread of this highly contagious infection within the area.
Under the new COVID-19 response plan prepared by the Delhi health department, as per recommendations of a committee, headed by NITI Aayog member V K Paul, authorities have to demarcate containment zones on a micro-level and at least 1,100 teams comprising of 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 which will send real-time details to a dedicated web portal set up by the government. According to an official, around 2.45 lakh people were screened in the national capital till Saturday night in a mammoth exercise to check the spread of COVID-19.
To determine the true extent of the virus’ spread, the Delhi government along with the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has also started a serological survey. The sero-survey which commenced from New Delhi area of the national capital tests a person’s blood serum for antibodies which indicate past exposure to the virus.
With the city battling an overwhelming number of cases testing, experts opine that the best way to fight the pandemic is to increase testing, which has now been scaled up to around 18,000 tests daily.
According to the order issued by the Directorate General of Health Services in Delhi on June 22, state level and district level teams have been identified to coordinate testing across the city as per the time-line identified by the committee.