Rajasthan bans all movement in 13 clusters as cases cross 1,000

Of these, 67 were from Jaipur’s Ramganj — a densely populated locality in Japiur, which has emerged as a hot spot for the infectious disease.

Rajasthan reported 108 new Covid-19 disease cases on Tuesday, taking the state tally to 1,005. Of these, 67 were from Jaipur’s Ramganj — a densely populated locality in Japiur, which has emerged as a hot spot for the infectious disease.

A migrant family takes to the road after the announcement of the extension of lockdown, on Ajmer road in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, on Tuesday, April 14, 2020. (Photo: Himanshu Vyas / Hindustan Times)

Ajitabh Sharma, the nodal officer for Ramganj, decided to further tighten restrictions by announcing zero-mobility in13 of the clusters.

“We found that most of the cases are from 13 clusters with a population of about 70,000. We are locking these clusters down completely. We will take everything that they need to their doorstep,” said Sharma, who is principal secretary of the energy department.

Out of the 969 total cases reported from Rajasthan till Tuesday, at least 346 are from Jaipur’s Ramganj, which has a population of 260,000.

According to Sharma, more than 20 medical teams have been constituted to collect samples from slum areas and colonies, which have reported cases.

Earlier, the district administration had divided the area into 30 clusters, where aggressive testing was carried out.

Asked about the rising number of cases in Jaipur, he said: “Rise in number of cases in Jaipur is not a worry. We are testing more people so more people are testing positive. We decided to increase testing at least 5 times to see if the Ramganj containment zone had slipped into the community transmission stage.