NEW DELHI: There is cautious optimism in government that the targeted strategies to manage Covid-19 hotspots and highrisk zones are paying off with the infection rate remaining within bounds, barring incidents like the Tablighi Jamaat outbreak that could potentially upset all calculations.The efforts of the Centre, along with states, to intensively track thousands of Tablighi members and their contacts are seen to have been effective and there is guarded hope that the worst of the incident may have been addressed. There remain concerns, however, that hidden infection zones such as the Tablighi Markaz, even on a smaller and scattered scale, might prove a challenge to health officials. At the government briefing on Tuesday, Lav Agarwal , joint secretary in the health ministry, said, “We have adopted two strategies for Covid-19 management.One is cluster containment strategy and when cases are higher in a particular area, we implement strategy for ‘outbreak which is amenable to management’. We have also oriented states and particularly district collectors of specific districts to implement these strategies accordingly.” Officials cautioned that even a relatively moderate infection curve may not be enough to allow the government to lift restrictions as the possibility of a resurgence if free movement of people was permitted could not be ruled out.The strategies of isolation and containment used in areas like Worli and Wockhart Hospital in Mumbai, villages in Palwal and Nuh in Haryana or at Bhilwara in Rajasthan are seen to be valuable lessons in preventing a virulent local transmission getting outof hand. Agarwal said the strategies had started showing positive results in districts like Agra, Gautam Budh Nagar and East Delhi. The ministry has also issued guidelines for cluster containment and outbreak containment. Technology-led initiatives for undertaking surveillance, monitoring quarantine facilities, tracking the health of suspected patients and their contacts placed under home quarantine have helped.The monitoring system has also provided up-to-date information to citizens, making predictive analytics using heat maps, with real-time tracking of ambulances and disinfection services, virtual training to doctors and healthcare professionals and telecounselling being conducted across various districts.