Why in news?
The “ruthless containment” model adopted in Bhilwara, which emerged last month as the worst-affected district in Rajasthan, has succeeded in breaking the chain of novel Coronavirus transmission.
Details
- Since April 3, when an aggressive 11-day-long “all-down curfew” started with even essential services being curtailed, only two new cases have been reported in the city of 4 lakh people.
- Teams of health workers have screened a population of 24 lakh in the entire district and conducted contact tracing of COVID-19 patients on a war-footing.
Meticulous strategies
- The containment model involved some meticulous strategies adopted in several phases, including isolation of the district with its borders being sealed, screening in the city and in rural areas, and sending the people showing symptoms to home quarantine and the confirmed patients to isolation wards.
- This was followed by a rigorous monitoring in the district’s villages.
- Significantly, the total lockdown in Bhilwara started on March 20, shortly after the health authorities detected the first positive case in a private hospital and four days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared the three-week nationwide lockdown.
- The aggressive screening process was taken up during the lockdown.
- The district administration also acquired hotels, resorts, hostels and dharamshalas in the town to arrange 1,500 quarantine beds and 14,400 normal beds to meet an emergency situation.
- During the ongoing “all-down curfew”, there is no relaxation of any type and the essential items are being delivered to the city residents at their doorstep.
