Four on Sunday, gone the next day — Delhi govt’s flip-flop on Covid containment zones

Said an official from the state health department, “Containment zones have been removed, which we formed for some days in a few areas of the Northeast district where a number of houses had more than two cases. Since it is a densely populated area, we took this precautionary measure. Now we have withdrawn it as there is no proper policy on it so far.”

The official said the department is monitoring the situation and is waiting for one more week to see how Covid cases decline, after which further steps will be taken. “If the situation worsens, we will take it up with senior officials,” said another official.

Containment zones are formed to prevent infections from getting established in the community and to prevent their spread outside the said area. It intends to break the cycle of transmission.

Dr Jugal Kishore, head of the Community Medicine Department at Safdarjung Hospital, said a containment zone is formed to decrease the spread of infection from a cluster or an infected person, but plays little role when community transmission is already established.

So far, only those who are symptomatic are being tested for Covid while Covid patients in hospitals are mainly those with co-morbid conditions.

“The most affected areas are under observation but we don’t want to create panic among people as the virus is mild and hospitalisation is low. We are watching the situation,” the official added.

Delhi on Monday logged 1,017 Covid cases, while the positivity rate jumped to 32.25%, according to data shared by the city government’s health department. Of the latest fatalities, Covid was the primary cause of death in two cases, it stated.

In the last seven days, 24 fatalities have been recorded in Delhi linked to Covid-19.

On Sunday, three deaths were recorded where the primary cause was Covid in one death and incidental in two, as per the bulletin.

Officials said that the patient who died of Covid had a lung infection and various other co-morbid conditions, due to which the death was declared as being due to the virus.