14-day lockdown, aggressive testing in 8 Gurugram zones

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Battling Covid

“We have made a successful start and hope the stabilisation we have achieved in Covid numbers continues. The SOPs shall remain in force till July 14 and we will fight the spread in these areas through tracing and testing,” said Deputy Commissioner Amit Khatri.

Sumedha Sharma

Tribune News Service

Gurugram, June 30

In what is being cited as one of the biggest attempts by the Gurugram administration to curtail Covid, eight municipal zones identified as ‘large outbreak regions’ were placed under “limited” lockdown starting today.

Prohibiting the movement of people, police teams have taken charge of the entry and exit points at the residential colonies in these large outbreak regions (LORs) and erected barracks to secure the perimeters.

Though shops selling essential commodities have been allowed to operate, all other commercial activities will remain suspended till July 14. The small-scale industries in these belts could not function as a majority had no arrangements to lodge their workers inside the regions.

What remained the highlight was aggressive tracing and testing by

11 health department teams headed by CMO Dr Virender Yadav. The teams checked all houses and thermo-scanned each resident.

Those with symptoms or any contact or other vulnerability were tested in 11 camps erected today. Of the 977 samples, 68 have reported positive so far.

“We will be scrounging each area thrice by July 14 to reach out to every patient. We are scanning each resident and testing is being done wherever required. The testing is free and people are allowed to get tested voluntarily too,” said Dr Yadav.

There were reports of people trying to sneak out with families from the LORs or resist screening, but the health teams managed to get all abide by the standard operating procedures (SOPs). The Health Department has declared that it shall double the testing from tomorrow.

“We have made a successful start and hope the stabilisation we have achieved in Covid numbers continues. The SOPs shall remain in force till July 14 and we will fight the spread in these areas through tracing and testing,” said Deputy Commissioner Amit Khatri.

Eight municipal zones with multiple containment areas have been declared LORs and are under restrictions.