Experts to help govt redraw red zones

New Delhi: With the Centre emphasising on redrawing of the containment zones in the capital, Delhi government has decided to take help of experts, including National Centre for Communicable Diseases (NCDC), to carry out the exercise.

Based on the inputs received from various agencies, Delhi government will work out a new formula on deciding the containment zone to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, a source said. “All the stakeholders and experts are being consulted, including NCDC,” chief secretary Vijay Dev told TOI.

At a meeting chaired by the Union home minister Amit Shah, which was attended by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia, among others, it was decided that fresh delineation of the containment zones would be carried out along with serological survey from June 27 to measure the scale of the spread of the virus.

As per the protocol in the capital, a residential pocket is sealed and declared a containment zone if three positive cases of Covid-19 emerge from the area. In certain cases, the district authorities contain a pocket despite one positive case if they think the spread could be larger.

As on Sunday, there were 262 active containment zones in the capital with close to 2.5 lakh people covered under it. While the Centre has lifted the lockdown and allowed most economic activities, the containment zones continue to remain sealed and under close surveillance for 28 days from the last Covid-positive case that emerge in the area.

The source said that divisional commissioner Sanjeev Khirwar held a meeting with all the district magistrates on Monday afternoon to take their views on the issue. Another meeting was chaired by chief secretary Vijay Dev in the evening.

“While no final decision could be taken on how the containment zones should be redrawn, it was decided that the existing ones should be left untouched,” said an official. “The NCDC, which is a premier government organisation working in the field of communicable diseases, has been roped in for suggestions on effective ways to prevent the spread of the infection, and on redrawing the boundaries of containment and buffer zones,” he added.

The official said the final report, which has to be presented to the Centre and Delhi government, was likely to be ready by June 26.