<p>Centre on Saturday (May 16) asked officers from 30 municipal areas spread across 12 states to step up vigilance and monitoring in old cities, urban slums and high-density pockets as India’s COVID-19 count surpassed that of China with 85,940 confirmed cases.</p>.<p>According to the Centre, five cities – Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Pune and Chennai – together account for 50% of the country’s coronavirus cases, while 13 other cities have 29% of the total patients with the infection.</p>.<p>Health Secretary Preeti Sudan summoned a meeting of top officers from the 30 municipal areas that account for 79% of COVID-19 cases.</p>.<p align="left">She asked the officers to focus on effective risk communication in order to build trust and confidence and to engage with community leaders and local opinion leaders who could accompany the local surveillance teams to encourage cooperation from the local communities.</p>.<p>Sudan underscored the need to consider challenges such as poor socio-economic conditions, limited health infrastructure, lack of social distancing and issues faced by women in the densely populated urban areas.</p>.<p>Besides the five cities mentioned above, Thane, Nashik, Aurangabad in Maharashtra, Indore and Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, Surat and Vadodara in Gujarat, Jaipur and Jodhpur in Rajasthan, Kolkata in West Bengal, Hyderabad in Telangana, Agra in Uttar Pradesh and Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh are the high caseload districts identified by the Centre. Some of these 18 cities have multiple municipal areas.</p>.<p>The Health Ministry also issued separate guidelines for preparedness and response to COVID-19 in Urban Settlements that ask urban local bodies to appoint a special commander to specific settlements to plan and implement strategies to contain the spread of infection.</p>.<p>On Saturday morning, India’s COVID-19 count spiked by 3,970 to touch 85,940, surpassing China’s confirmed cases 82,941. The death toll also increased by 103 to 2,752, according to the Health Ministry. A separate DH Covid-19 Tracker put the total number of confirmed cases at 88,530 and the death toll at 2,790 at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday.</p>.<p>The Centre asked the officials from the 30 municipal areas to define the geographic area of containment zones based on factors like mapping of cases & contacts, geographical dispersion of cases and contacts with well-demarcated perimeter and enforceability.</p>.<p>For Municipal Corporations, residential colony/mohallas/municipal wards or police-station area/municipal zones/towns etc. can be designated as containment zones, as appropriate, an official statement said.</p>
<p>Centre on Saturday (May 16) asked officers from 30 municipal areas spread across 12 states to step up vigilance and monitoring in old cities, urban slums and high-density pockets as India’s COVID-19 count surpassed that of China with 85,940 confirmed cases.</p>.<p>According to the Centre, five cities – Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Pune and Chennai – together account for 50% of the country’s coronavirus cases, while 13 other cities have 29% of the total patients with the infection.</p>.<p>Health Secretary Preeti Sudan summoned a meeting of top officers from the 30 municipal areas that account for 79% of COVID-19 cases.</p>.<p align="left">She asked the officers to focus on effective risk communication in order to build trust and confidence and to engage with community leaders and local opinion leaders who could accompany the local surveillance teams to encourage cooperation from the local communities.</p>.<p>Sudan underscored the need to consider challenges such as poor socio-economic conditions, limited health infrastructure, lack of social distancing and issues faced by women in the densely populated urban areas.</p>.<p>Besides the five cities mentioned above, Thane, Nashik, Aurangabad in Maharashtra, Indore and Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, Surat and Vadodara in Gujarat, Jaipur and Jodhpur in Rajasthan, Kolkata in West Bengal, Hyderabad in Telangana, Agra in Uttar Pradesh and Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh are the high caseload districts identified by the Centre. Some of these 18 cities have multiple municipal areas.</p>.<p>The Health Ministry also issued separate guidelines for preparedness and response to COVID-19 in Urban Settlements that ask urban local bodies to appoint a special commander to specific settlements to plan and implement strategies to contain the spread of infection.</p>.<p>On Saturday morning, India’s COVID-19 count spiked by 3,970 to touch 85,940, surpassing China’s confirmed cases 82,941. The death toll also increased by 103 to 2,752, according to the Health Ministry. A separate DH Covid-19 Tracker put the total number of confirmed cases at 88,530 and the death toll at 2,790 at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday.</p>.<p>The Centre asked the officials from the 30 municipal areas to define the geographic area of containment zones based on factors like mapping of cases & contacts, geographical dispersion of cases and contacts with well-demarcated perimeter and enforceability.</p>.<p>For Municipal Corporations, residential colony/mohallas/municipal wards or police-station area/municipal zones/towns etc. can be designated as containment zones, as appropriate, an official statement said.</p>
