New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Delhi government on Friday declared that northeast Delhi’s Dilshad Garden covid-19 free after no positive case was reported from the area in the last ten days. The area was Delhi’s first containment zone after eight people tested positive.

This comes even as Delhi continues to battle a growing number of positive cases, over 900 so far. Delhi has the third highest number of cases in India after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. So far, the cases have been limited to those who returned from foreign travel, those who came in contact with them and members who were present in the Markaz in Nizamuddin.

The national capital currently has approximately 30 containment zones which have been sealed off, like Dilshad Garden, to control the spread of the virus under operation SHIELD. As part of the operation, the area is sealed and people are put under home quarantine. Along with health workers, door-to-door checks are conducted after which those showing symptoms are isolated and the people who come in contact with them are tracked. A sanitisation drive is conducted in the area and only the supply of essential goods is ensured.

After sealing off the area, 123 medical teams in Dilshad Garden screened more than 15,000 people living in 4,032 houses, and hospitalised those suspected. The operation involved tracing all those who came in contact with the first patient and ordering their quarantine.

"Operation SHIELD has made Dilshad Garden coronavirus free. It was one of the hotspots in Delhi and no cases have been reported from here in ten days," health minister Satyendar Jain said.

The government had imposed a curfew, restricting the assembly of people in parts of Dilshad Garden and Old Seemapuri.

The infection in the area spread after a woman returned from Saudi Arabia in the second week of March with the infection. The eight confirmed cases in the area included members of her family and a mohalla clinic doctor.

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