West Delhi will survey all houses in its area for Covid-19 symptomatic persons

Other districts in Delhi are likely to follow suit in the coming days, said a senior government official privy to the matter.

The west Delhi revenue district on Thursday expanded the ambit of the door-to-door Covid-19 survey meant for containment zones, vulnerable localities and hot spots and said the exercise will now cover the whole district until further orders.

The initiative to expand the survey started with west Delhi as its district officials had proactively sought permission to do so in a meeting with chief secretary Vijay Dev on Wednesday evening. (HT Photo)

Other districts in Delhi are likely to follow suit in the coming days, said a senior government official privy to the matter.

“It has been directed by the competent authority (the Delhi Disaster Management Authority) to continue the process of house-to-house search for symptomatic persons, contacts, those above 60 years of age and people above the age of 50 years with co-morbidities in the remaining areas until further orders. It was also directed that testing of all such persons be carried out,” said the order issued for the west district, which HT has seen.

The initiative to expand the survey started with west Delhi as its district officials had proactively sought permission to do so in a meeting with chief secretary Vijay Dev on Wednesday evening.

Soon, other district magistrates, who were also present in the meeting, expressed a willingness to expand the survey in their respective districts, said a senior official privy to the meeting.

“We will expand the survey across the district aiming to identify, test and isolate more Covid-19 cases, especially the elderly and the vulnerable,” said Neha Bansal, district magistrate (west Delhi).

Delhi government spokesperson did not comment on the expansion of the survey

HT has reported on Thursday that a total of 13,516 persons (0.24%) of the 5.73 million screened as part of the Delhi government’s ongoing door-to-door survey, were found to have symptoms of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) till Tuesday, while 1,178 persons have tested positive for the disease. The survey was launched on November 20 and was to conclude on Thursday, but it is likely that the exercise may now be extended.

Around 6.42% -- both symptomatic persons and contacts of Covid-19 patients in high-risk areas who have undergone tests till Tuesday -- have tested positive for the virus, according to the government data accessed by HT.

The survey, which was launched on the directions of Union home minister Amit Shah in light of the sharp increase in Covid-19 cases and deaths in the national capital, was supposed to cover around 5.8 million people – more than one-fourth of Delhi’s total population of around 20 million – mainly residing in the over 4,500 containment zones and other areas assessed as hot spots in the 11 revenue districts.

Around 30,000 government officials and civic agency employees ranging from teachers to mosquito breeding checkers and social health workers were roped in for the survey, which had covered 5.73 million people as on Tuesday.