ERNAKULAM/NEW DELHI : On 7 March, when news surfaced that a family of three returning from Italy had skipped the voluntary screening at the airport, the administration in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district sprang into action. Realizing the potential for an outbreak, collector P.B. Nooh scrambled a team of doctors, police personnel and local politicians. In 48 hours, hundreds of people the family met were identified using mobile location data and physical interviews, and placed under quarantine. Pathanamthitta district, with 1.1 million residents, was at that time the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in Kerala, reporting the highest number of cases (9) at that point. Aided by aggressive contact tracing, quarantining and testing, the district has since brought down covid-19 cases to just six. Pathanamthitta’s success story reflects Kerala’s successful fightback against the virus, with nearly 55% of its 386 covid-19 patients recovering as of Tuesday.

Several parts of the country that were covid-19 hotspots just a fortnight ago have since successfully pushed back the pandemic, offering lessons for others still struggling to get the disease under control.

According to government data, at least 354 of India’s 736 districts are reporting covid-19 cases, out of which over 153 are hotspots (recording more than six cases as per government definition) and the rest emerging hotspots with cases being reported.

According to the health ministry, at least 25 districts that previously had covid-19 cases have had no new cases in the last two weeks, displaying positive outcomes of the containment plans.

“A constant vigil is being maintained to ensure that no new cases may occur in the future. Through a collective effort to combat covid-19 in the country, we are taking several steps along with the states/UTs for its prevention, containment and management of covid-19," said Lav Agarwal, joint secretary, Union health ministry.

Rajasthan’s Bhilwara district has had remarkable success too. The state claims it has screened nearly 50 million people and tested 11.7 million households so far. The state’s Pratapgarh district reported two new cases on 20 March, which later turned negative. “It’s been over 15 days that we got any positive case and the two cases which were positive have also turned negative," said Anupama Jorwal, district collector, Pratapgarh.

Similarly, Punjab, which reported one of the initial deaths due to covid-19, has stopped reporting cases in some areas.

“We started with extensive door-to-door campaign to spread awareness on covid-19 and all our staff were put into service. We covered each and every household in urban areas with more than 21 lakh households. All urban areas have been sanitized with sodium hypo 1% diluted solutions. Public buildings have also been sanitized," said Brahm Mohindra, minister of local government, Punjab.

For over 10 days, Delhi’s Dilshad Garden residents have become familiar with sanitization work and frequent house visits from health workers to check for symptoms. The area is the Delhi government’s first success story in fixing coronavirus hotspots.

Dilshad Garden had become a hotspot after reporting over eight positive cases after a woman returned from overseas; the disease spread to her family members and a mohalla clinic doctor she visited. It was the first containment zone in the national capital under Operation SHIELD, which involves sealing the area, imposing home quarantine, isolation of infected patients, ensuring essential services, local sanitization and door-to-door surveys.

“We have declared more containment zones and identified them as red zones. We have also identified high-risk zones which have been marked as orange zones to reduce the spread of the virus," Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said. Delhi now has over 1,500 positive cases, one of the highest in the country along with Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. A key hotspot in Delhi is also the Markaz in Nizamuddin, which led to a sharp spike in the number of cases across states.

Pretika Khanna contributed to this story.

Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter.

Share Via

Click here to read the Mint ePapermint is now on Telegram. Join mint channel in your Telegram and stay updated