‘Bhilwara model’ loses its way in Jaipur’s congested Ramganj

According to Chief Medical and Health Officer (CMHO), Jaipur, Narottam Sharma, of the total cases in the city, at least 285 have been reported from Ramganj, inside the Walled City, where the first case was reported on March 26, when a 45-year-old man who had returned from Oman on March 12, tested positive.

The administration is relying on containment measures including a massive drive for random sample collection after identifying clusters and strict curfew inside the Walled City, where two deaths were reported in the last five days.

State Health Minister Raghu Sharma said the dense population in Ramganj was a major challenge in implementing the “Bhilwara model”. He also pointed to lack of public participation in following the administration’s orders.

“The nature of the spread of population is different when it comes to Bhilwara and Ramganj. Ramganj is a densely-populated area and, in some places, 10-15 families reside in one building. Moreover, in Bhilwara, our strategy of ruthless containment was successful because of exemplary public participation, with all citizens following the orders to stay indoors. We have appealed to everyone in Ramganj to exercise social distancing but we need complete support of the public,” said the minister.

“Our strategy to tackle the outbreak in Ramganj is based on two points — contact tracing and cluster-wise sampling. We have divided the entire area into various clusters, based on the number of affected persons. Random samples are being collected from people living near all these clusters. It is good that more cases are coming out as we are conducting more tests. This will benefit us in the long run…” he said.

“We have divided the entire affected area into 30 clusters… We are also going door-to-door… So far, 4,047 samples have been collected since April 8, when the drive started. We are taking the help of the police, but people are still coming out of their houses,” said the CMHO.

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