New Delhi: The Delhi government has marked nearly 3,000 containment zones since November 1 to contain the spread of coronavirus during its third surge in the national capital taking the total number of containment zones to 6,292.
The government has sealed 2,933 localities between November 1 and December 7 while 2,361 new containment zones were marked between November 5 and December 5 — highest in a month since the Covid pandemic broke out earlier this year, as per the data accessed from the Delhi government.
With 1,586 containment zones, Southwest district of Delhi tops the list of areas with most number of containment zones. The other areas that have a large number of containment zones include Raj Nagar, Mahavir Enclave, Sultanpur, Munirka and Mohan Garden, apart from some areas in Najafgarh, Dwarka and Uttam Nagar.
The Southwest region was followed by the South district with 864 containment zones while the lowest number was recorded in the East district with 198 zones.
On an average, the government marked record 78 fresh containment zones between November 5 and December 5.
The containment zones are distributed among Delhi’s 11 districts – Southwest (1,586), South (864), West (537), New Delhi (284), Central (639), Southeast (824), Northwest (441), Shahdara (229), North (236), East (198) and Northeast (207).
Besides, the month between November 5 and December 5 saw 41 per cent more containment zones than its previous month. Between October 5 and November 5, only 977 new containment zones were marked, while 1,731 new containment zones were marked between September 5 and October 5.
After battling the third surge with lack of healthcare facilities, and huge number of daily new infections and fatalities in November, December arrived as a relief for Delhi. The number of daily cases and the positivity rate has gone down drastically with the start of the month. While the daily new cases have fallen under 5,000, the positivity rate is also plunging below 4 per cent for the last many days.
A state health department official attributed the falling numbers of cases to the containment zones. “It helped in checking the infection spread since the micro-containment zones are easier to monitor. All individuals living within a containment zone are tested irrespective of whether they are symptomatic or asymptomatic,” the official added.
However, Dr RK Gupta, member, Delhi Covid Committee constituted by the Kejriwal government opined that the large creation of the containment zones had negligible impact in controlling the infection.
“There is a little applicability of the containment zones when the whole population is moving one place from another without any restriction whatsoever. The containment zones are meaningless when the movement is not restricted,” he said.
“One cannot trace the contacts of a person found infected in a containment zone if the population living under is roaming freely,” Gupta added.
IANS