Gujarat's three worst hit cities create containment zones to stop spread of COVID-19

The civic authorities in Gujarat's three worst hit coronavirus cases - Surat, Ahmedabad and Bhavnagar - in the past couple of days have imposed cluster containment of residential societies which are densely populated and from where maximum number of COVID-19 cases are being detected and in most of the cases source of infection are not known.

The Surat civic body has already quarantined almost 1.25 sq km of area covering nearly 4000 houses in Rander that is dominated by Sunni Bohra Muslims. The step was taken after a 67-year-old male, who runs a laundry shop, was found infected with the virus on March 30. This was the second case reported from the area after a businessman was found infected earlier. Surat has till Saturday reported 12 positive cases.

Similarly, in Ahmedabad, one of the hotspots of the virus spread in the country with 43 positive cases including five deaths, the civic authority has put five residential societies-two in Jamalpur, one each in Dariapur, Rakhial and Danilimbda-under cluster containment. These societies, majority of them in Muslim dominated areas, have about 150 houses with a population of nearly 800 Officials said that from these societies over 20 cases have been detected and in most of the the case source of infection is not known.

These societies have been put under surveillance and being manned by the police and health officials. "The cluster containment protocol says that all entry and exit gates shall be closed except one. The health officers will be surveying every household and give necessary treatment. It is merely to contain the spread since these are the societies densely populated," said a senior officer with Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. He added, "We are providing each household all essential commodity required on daily basis."

A number of persons in these localities are upset with the authorities and believe that government should be more sympathetic in dealing with them. On Friday, the civic authority had to take help from the local police to isolate several members of a COVID-19 patients and put them into quarantine facilities. Municipal Commissioner Vijay Nehra didn't respond to call made by DH.

Nehra had tweeted on this development as saying that "The entire exercise was well planned and happened smoothly & peacefully." While announcing cluster containment of five housing societies, he tweeted, "Extraordinary times calls for extraordinary steps. Our teams will ensure supply of essential commodities to all the families in these areas."

Meanwhile, Ahmedabad police commissioner Ashish Bhatia on Saturday told reporters that these societies are manned by a police sub inspector and four police constables to impose restricted movement. Besides, there are local policemen and Rapid Action Force (RAF) teams have also been deployed in the areas surrounding the societies.

On the other hand in Bhavnagar town, the local administration has also imposed cluster containment in the locality, home to nearly 2000 persons, from where seven cases of lethal virus have been detected. The city has reported a total of nine cases including one linked to controversial Tablighi Jamaat's religious congregation attendee.

With detection of 13 new positive cases of coronavirus in the state till Saturday evening, the number of affected persons reached 108. The state also reported a fresh death of 56-year-old woman in Ahmedabad that took the death toll to 10, out of which five have died Ahmedabad. Health department’s data reveals number of positive cases with foreign travel history has remained 33 for the past four days, while local transmission cases have increased to 62. There are ten cases in which patients had history of traveling to other state.