Faridabad increases containment zones to 26

The Faridabad district administration, on Saturday, increased the number of containment zones in the district from 14 to 26, with new additions in the residential

The Faridabad district administration, on Saturday, increased the number of containment zones in the district from 14 to 26, with new additions in the residential areas. The district administration added 14 new areas to the revised list of containment zones, while two zones in the district were de-notified after no Covid-19 cases were reported from these areas in the last 28 days.

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Four new cases of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) were reported on Saturday, bringing the total count of people who have been tested positive in the district to 144. Officials said 75 people have been discharged so far and five have succumbed to the infection. The rest are undergoing treatment.

The newly added containment zones in the city are: areas of Sanjay Colony in Sector 23, Sector 23 A, plot numbers 1136 to 2982 of Sector 62, Adarsh Colony, pockets of EWS plots of Sector 18 Housing Board Colony, Fatehpur Chandila, village Mahola, village Sihi, Shiv Sharda Colony in Ballabhgarh, Sector 9, Sector 17, Sector 10, Indira Colony. Lanes adjacent to Railway Road and the sector-dividing roads of sectors 22 and 24 have also been categorised as containment zones.

Yashpal Yadav, deputy commissioner, Faridabad, said that at least one Covid-19 case has been reported in the last four days from these new areas. “Most of the persons recently infected with SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes Covid-19) were people who had visited Delhi. Most of them had contracted the virus after coming in contact with a Covid-19 patient in Azadpur Sabji Mandi or those who had returned from Delhi with the infection,” he said.

Yadav said they have adopted a new method on Friday for designating a containment zones after a meeting with health department and police teams.

“Earlier, we used to take a three-kilometre area as containment zone but now we are covering a radius of 500 metres from the epicentre of the infection and are conducting screening, sampling, and testing of suspected cases residing in that area. We have assigned tasks to all the ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) workers and each one of them has been asked to collect 25 samples,” he said.

The administration is also taking details from the chemist shop regarding the sale of fever, flu, and cough medicines and have been asked to take down the mobile number and residential address of each customer.

Faridabad had sealed its borders with Delhi last month, prohibiting the entry of all commuters, including essential workers, until May 17 and the police said the plan is likely to remain the same for this month.

KK Rao, Faridabad’s commissioner of police, said that they have increased police deployment in the containment zones and only essential supply is allowed in the area. “We hold regular meetings in a day with the health department and district administration to discuss the ongoing plan of action and preparation. Also, to check the progress of cases and check the data compiled by the people who return from the field in the evening. We all are connected through a WhatsApp group and police teams are sent with the health workers so that they can easily conduct the sampling ,” he said.

The deputy commissioner further said, “We had sent the samples of 6,673 people, of which 144 have tested positive and the results of 684 are awaited. At least 59 people are currently hospitalised.”

The infected people have been admitted to the ESIC hospital, the officials said, adding that at least 7,4341 people are currently under home quarantine in the district and 5,897 people are on surveillance for Influenza-like illness.