Coronavirus: Operation SHIELD a success as Dilshad Garden now declared Covid-free

Dilshad Garden, which was declared one of the first 10 Covid-19 hot spots in the country, saw a spike in coronavirus cases after a 38-year-old woman tested positive. Five of those she had come in contact with, including a mohalla clinic doctor, subsequently tested positive.

Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain on Friday said east Delhi’s Dilshad Garden is “coronavirus free”, with no new cases reported in the last 10 days from the area, which he said was due to measures taken under the government’s ‘Operation SHIELD’. Dilshad Garden, which emerged as one of the hot spots for the coronavirus disease in the national Capital, was declared a containment zone on April 8.

A municipal worker chemically disinfects a locality in Dilshad Colony G Block-- one of the 23 hotspots sealed to curb the spread of coronavirus, on day seventeen of the 21 day nationwide lockdown in New Delhi. (Photo by Sonu Mehta / Hindustan Times)

The government’s medical teams screened the entire area under Operation SHIELD (Sealing, Home quarantine, Isolation, Essential supplies, Local sanitation and disinfection, and Door-to-door checking) — a strategy of contact tracing to contain the spread of Covid-19, announced by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday.

Jain said, “Under Operation SHIELD, 123 medical teams screened more than 15,000 people living in 4,032 houses. Thousands of people were quarantined and tests were done. The hard work of the health officials and the successful implementation of the Operation SHIELD have made Dilshad Garden coronavirus free.”

Dr SK Nayak, a district administration officer in Shahdara, said: “By working round-the-clock in the last 15 days, Operation SHIELD has been successful at Dilshad Garden. Not a single positive case has come from the area in more than 10 days from the area.”

Dilshad Garden, which was declared one of the first 10 Covid-19 hot spots in the country, saw a spike in coronavirus cases after a 38-year-old woman tested positive. Five of those she had come in contact with, including a mohalla clinic doctor, subsequently tested positive.

“I feared a massive Covid-19 outbreak in the Dilshad Garden area after seven people were found positive. It was transmitted from the woman who had returned from Saudi Arabia and was found Covid-19 positive. Thereafter, chief minister Kejriwal instructed to implement Operation SHIELD at Dilshad Garden. It was the first such implementation,” said Jain.

In a massive exercise, 81 people who had come in contact with the woman were traced in the area and quarantined. The woman’s son, two daughters and mother had also tested positive. The Delhi government took the help of CCTV cameras to find out the movement of her son and traced the places or the people he visited, said a Delhi health department official.

“When the woman tested positive, we rushed to her residence to ask her family for names and addresses of the people who had visited them since March 10, the date of her return from Dubai. Her son was not very cooperative, so we had to seek the help of the local police to get information. We also used footage from the CCTV cameras installed near their home to identify those who needed to be put under surveillance,” said Dr Nayak.

While strict enforcement measures have been in place since March 18, when the woman tested positive, the area was declared a containment zone only on April 8, along with 22 other locations.

The state government, with the help of the Delhi Police, had imposed a curfew in Dilshad Garden and Old Seemapuri, said the senior official. The whole area was sealed, along with Old Seemapuri, after a Mohalla clinic doctor tested positive.

“The state government is still tracking the people of the area and if there are symptoms then they are being quarantined. The Delhi government will also initiate random testing of the residents soon,” said Dr Nayak.