Once a hotspot, Mewat region bounces back

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 28

From being the biggest hotspot of Haryana with 91 positive cases of the total 295, the Mewat region — comprising Nuh district and Hathin block of Palwal district — is now fast moving towards normalcy with 78 of them getting cured and discharged.

Inhabited largely by the Meo Muslim population, the Mewat region came on the Covid map of the state by March-end when intelligence reports revealed that a large number of those who attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi’s Nizamuddin had fanned out here for the purpose of preaching.

Cases started trickling in from the beginning of this month and the numbers kept rising as the results of those tested came to the fore.

By April 18, Nuh district comprising Indri, Punhana, Pigwan, Firozepur Jhirka and Nuh block had 57 positive cases while Hathin block of Palwal had 34 positive cases.

However, not a single case of Covid has emerged in the two districts in the past 10 days, much to the relief of the government.

“This turnaround has been possible largely because of timely action. In the first three days starting from March 29, we had traced 312 Jamaatis and quarantined them. As many as 60 others were traced later. 700 more Jamatis were traced after that and they, too, were quarantined. Early isolation of suspects not only helped in checking the spread, but also saved positive cases from developing any complications because of the timely medical help,” said Virender Yadav, Civil Surgeon, Nuh.

He said since the Jamaatis keep moving from one village to the other, it was very tough to trace them, but the health workers worked overtime not only to trace them, but to test all of them timely.

“Since the WHO guidelines of converting 3-km area as containment zone and 5 km in urban areas and 7 km in rural areas as buffer zone couldn’t have worked in Nuh, we went for 1, 3 and 5 km respectively and concentrated on pin-pointing the suspected cases,” Yadav added.

Palwal Civil Surgeon Brahmdeep Singh said since the first contact of the Tablighis in the villages were the maulvis of the mosques, the health authorities decided to quarantine all 20 of them in Hathin block and eventually two of them tested Covid positive.

“It was a tough job sending the maulvis into quarantine because there was a lot of resistance due to religious reasons. But the strategy worked and the Health Department succeeded in containing the spread,” Singh said.

Of the 32 patients already discharged in Palwal, 30 remained asymptomatic while two had mild symptoms.

Nuh, Palwal on way to normalcy

• Nuh district: Of 57 positive cases, 42 were Jamaatis and 4 their contacts while 11 others included a truck driver, a traveller and their contacts
• In all, 46 have been sent home while only 11 active cases remain
• Palwal district: In all, 32 of 34 positive cases were the Jamaatis, though 3 of them got infection from those who came from Delhi
• In Hathin block, 32 of 34 patients have been cured and sent home

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