56 test positive in two clusters in Delhi, DMs call for retests after week-long delay

Forty-one cases were reported from a double-storey building in southwest Delhi’s Kapashera. The other 15 cases were reported from across southeast district’s Tughlakabad Extension area.

Fifty-six people, including a three-year-old, from two clusters in Kapashera and Tughlakabad Extension have tested positive for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in two days, according to the Delhi government.

Until Saturday evening, Delhi reported 4,122 Covid-19 cases, of whom 64 had died. (Yogendra Kumar/HT PHOTO)

Forty-one cases were reported from a double-storey building in southwest Delhi’s Kapashera. The other 15 cases were reported from across southeast district’s Tughlakabad Extension area.

Until Saturday evening, Delhi reported 4,122 Covid-19 cases, of whom 64 had died.

The government and civic agencies have been at work in the areas over the last two weeks to contain the spread of the virus after the first cases were detected there. The respective areas were also declared containment zones when the positive cases came to light. As of Saturday, Delhi has 95 containment zones.

Residents of areas categorised as containment zones are not allowed to step out of their houses, and authorities deliver essential items to doorsteps. Entries and exits to and from these neighbourhood are restricted as well, and pickets are continuously guarded by police personnel.

The authorities allow only select vendors to supply groceries and other essentials to the neighbourhood with the help of local residents’ welfare associations.

The two, however, are not the first clusters to report multiple Covid-19 cases. On April 23, at least 46 people had tested positive for Covid-19 from two lanes of an already-notified containment zone in Jahangirpuri area of north district.

Kapashera

According to district administration officials, a woman living in a building in Theke Wali Gali near the deputy commissioner’s office in Kapashera tested positive for the disease on April 18.

Consequently, the district administration sealed the densely populated building, which houses around 200 people, and declared the lane a containment zone on April 19. The building has now been become a Covid-19 hot spot.

Southwest district magistrate Rahul Singh said that though the guidelines mandate sealing of an area when three cases have been reported, the district administration took the “proactive decision” to seal the building with only one case reported, to ensure the virus did not spread any further.

Kapashera is also home to thousands of migrant workers who work in different parts of the national capital and share small single rooms in the area, with other workers.

“We conducted a survey and collected samples of 175 residents of the building on April 20 and April 22. Of these samples, sent to the National Institute of Biologicals (NIB) laboratory in Noida, 67 returned on Friday evening, and 41 were positive. We expect the remaining test results to arrive in a couple of days,” Singh said.

He said the test results were delayed due to the pendency of cases at the Noida laboratory. “All the individuals who tested positive are asymptomatic, and fresh tests will be conducted to assess their present status,” he added.

The 41 who tested positive are across age groups.

According to former councillor Anil Yadav, the building has entries in two lanes of the area.

The front of the plot houses a two-storey building, while the back has makeshift rooms. Yadav said there are 60-65 rooms in the building, including the makeshift ones.

Some of the building’s residents had returned to their hometowns before the lockdown.

“Most of the residents of the building are daily wage labourers, factory workers and fruit or vegetable vendors. The building is densely populated, with as many as four or five people living in one room. It’s good that the building was sealed on April 19, else the entire region could have been affected,” he said.

He said vigilance and sanitisation drives have been stepped up in the area.

Tughlakabad Extension

As many as 15 residents of lanes 24 to 28, which were previously declared containment zones, of Tughlakabad Extension have tested positive for Covid-19. The tests were conducted on April 20 and the results returned on April 30 evening.

These tests were also sent to the NIB lab in Noida.

Government officials said, 40 more results from the area were pending.

Lanes 26 and 27 of Tughlakabad Extension were declared a containment zone on April 17, after three people tested positive.

On April 19, 35 more people tested positive from the same area, after which three more lanes — 24, 25 and 28 — were added to the containment zone.

District administration officials said that during a door-to-door survey in the area, some people displayed symptoms of the disease, after which 87 residents were tested.

“Test reports of 47 people have arrived, of which 15 have tested positive,” an official said.

Administration officials said they had ramped up surveillance in all the lanes, and that the area had been sealed completely.

Poonam Bhati, councillor, Tughlakabad Extension, said disinfection exercises have been stepped up in the area and regular screenings are being conducted.

She, however, said tests to should be conducted again since the initial reports had been delayed by more than a week.

“More samples should be collected from the area. Report of another 40 samples are yet to come. There should be no delay, and reports should be released in stipulated timeframe of 36 to 48 hours for effective monitoring and treatment,” she said.