Multipronged war helped curbing spread in SBS Nagar

FLATTENING THE CURVE Efforts of government officials and co-operation of people paid off as no new case has been reported in Punjab’s first containment zone comprising 15 villages of Banga subdivision since March 26

SBS Nagar Punjab’s first containment zone — 15 villages of Banga subdivision in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar — has not got a single coronavirus positive case since March 26. These 15 villages having a population of 27,000 were sealed after Baldev Singh, who has been dubbed as the state’s first super-spreader, tested positive after his death on March 18. Baldev Singh, who was also Punjab’s first coronavirus casualty, infected 27 people, including 18 from SBS Nagar district. The district has 19 positive cases to date.

HT Photo

Baldev was a preacher at Pathlawa village dera and the district administration first identified the villages whose residents were frequent visitors to the dera. Deputy commissioner Vinay Bublani said geographical identification for containment zone was a challenge but “we decided to seal villages where the dera had an influence. We covered nearly 80 per cent of the district under the door-to-door survey to examine the people with the help of Asha workers”.

“We immediately deployed teams for contact tracing of the positive cases and identified nearly 760 people. We collected swab samples of 400 people of which 377 were found negative for the virus. The villagers themselves came forward to share the information,” said Bublani, adding that the administration set-up a control room headed by the additional deputy commissioner Aditya Uppal, who supervised the coordination between helplines and health authorities for sampling and other purposes.

Banga sub-divisional magistrate Gautam Jain said they screened and surveyed nearly 27,000 people in the 15 sealed villages. He said a teams psychiatrists also was pressed into gather maximum information from Pathlawa residents and also to get them out of the panic mode.

The administration also formed a WhatsApp group of 100 key members from 15 Banga villages, including sarpanches, panchayat members and youngsters for better co-ordination and gathering information in real time. The villagers would list essential items required in the group and the officials would deliver them at their doorsteps. Six patrolling teams kept a strict vigil across the village round the clock.

“We sanitised the 15 villagers three times and also provided chemicals to the villagers to sanitise their houses. Now, we have been keeping an eye on three villages, including Pathlawa, through drones too,” Jain said.

SBS Nagar civil surgeon Dr Rajinder Prasad Bhatia said they deputed around 26 door-to-door survey teams while special medical camps were organised for check-ups. We collected more than 200 samples of the close contacts of positive cases in on March 25 and 26 and called special teams from medical colleges of Patiala and Amritsar.”

SBS Nagar, senior superintendent of police Alka Meena said around 240 cops were deputed in the 15 sealed villages to ensure that there was no movement of the people, besides 17 inter-district checkpoints were set up and 55 patrolling vehicles deployed across the district. “We also made WhatsApp groups of people from 15 villages to deliver instruction and get feedback,” Meena said.

President of Pathlawa-based Bhai Ghaniya Singh sports club Sandeep Singh said villagers were aware of the crisis and fully co-operated with the administration by home quarantining themselves. “We sanitised our village and kept social distancing as suggested,” he said.