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New Delhi, April 9 (IANS) The Delhi Health Department on Thursday said that no community transfer of the coronavirus infection is happening in the city and about 60 per cent of the total cases are from Nizamuddin Markaz alone.
Speaking to IANS, a Health Department official maintained that the local and community transmission of the infection has not been reported so far.
"With proper implementation of the lockdown and formation of the containment zones across at least 25 locations in the city, the chances are now even less that Delhi can go for stage three transmission, if it continues such measures."
According to the official definition, Stage 3 is the community transmission, when infections happen in public and the source for the virus cannot be traced.
The official said nine out of 11 distracts in the city have containment zones, with maximum from East district.
"While there is a sense of panic in people after a geographical region is announced to be a containment zone but it is for the benefit of the people. Their movement is restricted and so the chance of the spread of the infection."
Across the city, there are 720 Covid-19 cases and about 60 per cent of these are from Nizamuddin Markaz alone, while 35 per cent have foreignAtravel history or their immediate contacts.
"So, we can say no community transmission has taken place. But the fear is not over. We need to continue taking preventive steps."
The official said close to 20,000 people are under quarantine at homes or government accommodations.
"As per our current preparations, we are ready to deal up to 25,000 to 30,000 active cases."
On the need for making containment zone, even when the lockdown was imposed, the official said the containment zones are made up of a limited geographical area.
"It becomes important because if people continue to buy essential items from a shop, where an infected person may have also gone, the scope of community transmission increases. The infection can also be carried through a garbage collector, who goes from house to house as part of his job."
To check this, the official said, all social activities are stopped, "the government ensures that the essential communities are supplied to each house and the people do not move out of the houses."
According to the Health Ministry, an area with 10 or more cases of an infection is called a cluster and if multiple clusters develop in any region and have the potential to spread it further, it is called a hotspot.
However, for coronavirus, it is an emerging term and even an area with one positive case can be called a hotspot, depending upon the possibility of the spread in that area, the official said. After an area is declared a hotspot or have the capacity to be a hotspot, the authorities have the right to restrict the movement of the people and make the area a containment zone -- locking down a defined geographic area to contain the outbreak of COVID-19.
The containment zones, created to map the local transmission of the disease and prevent the contagion from spreading, are announced by the office of the District Magistrate. The area and the houses in it are sanitised properly.
So far, several pockets in the city have been declared containment zones, including parts of Nizamuddin, Dilshad Garden, Sadar Bazar, Vasundhara Enclave, Kalyanpuri, Pandav Nagar, Krishan Kunj, Khichripur, Malviya Nagar, Sangam Vihar and Patparganj.
--IANS
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