The ongoing 21-day nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 is set to end on April 14 if it is not extended. While there is no clarity on the extension of the lockdown as the number of COVID-19 cases has only been on the rise during the lockdown, there is a growing argument that instead of a total lockdown, it is better to identify and isolate hotspots.

A few states have already done this and have shown good results.

Kerala's Kasaragod district which went into lockdown even before the nationwide lockdown began is one of the examples. The district alone accounts for 157 of the total 345 COVID-19 positive cases reported in the state. But due to the intense lockdown measure, the district is reporting a fall in the number of cases every day.

Another effective model that can be emulated across India is what the Ashok Gehlot-led government did in Bhilwara, The 'Bhilwara Model' of COVID-19 containment was put in place on March 20, a day after a doctor in a private hospital in the city tested positive, following which the district emerged as a hotspot for coronavirus positive cases in the state.

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Bhilwara district was among the most-affected places in India during the first phase of the COVID-19 outbreak and has a total of 27 cases there.



The numbers could have been much higher if the Rajasthan government had not put in some tough measures.

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This included imposing a curfew in the district which also barred essential services, extensive screening and house-to-house surveys to check for possible cases, and detailed contact tracing of each positive case to create a dossier on everybody they met ever since they got infected.



While this was definitely inconvenient for the residents, the administration made sure that there was an adequate supply of groceries and other essentials that were delivered at every doorstep at a fixed time so that people did not have to venture out.

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And the data has shown that it has worked. The city reported the 27th case on April 4, five days after the previous COVID-19 positive case.



Now after other areas like Jaipur, Jodhpur, Tonk, Jhunjhunu, Churu, Bikaner, and Kota have recorded an increase in the number of people testing positive of COVID-19, Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma said the Bhilwara model, will be implemented across the state.

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In Bhilwara, the administration applied a systematic multi-phased approach to tackle the coronavirus infection and was successful in containing its spread, said Sharma.

He said the COVID-19 preventive action was being taken in consultation with local representatives, senior doctors, epidemiologists and officials of various departments. With this, we would be able to control the epidemic in Ramganj and other cities as well, he added.

"The population density in the walled city of Jaipur is high and maintaining social distancing is a challenge," he said. "Intensive screening is being done and the health department''s surveillance team has surveyed over 12.5 lakh families comprising 5.37 crore people," the Minister said and added, the government had decided to do intensive sampling for prevention of the spread of COVID-19 infection.