Gurgaon’s Covid-19 case tally double of Faridabad, sealed areas half

GURUGRAM: Faridabad, where the Covid-19 case count is half of that of Gurugram, has double the number of containment zones compared to the other NCR district.
Faridabad’s Covid-19 case count on Friday breached the 2,000 mark as 91 people tested positive for the infection. With its tally escalating to 2,003, the district administration increased the number of containment zones to 195.
Gurugram, on the other hand, which crossed the 4,000 mark with 146 fresh cases to reach 4,136, has 98 containment zones.
The reason for this is that two districts, which share their borders with Delhi, follow different containment strategies. In Gurugram, an area is declared as a containment zone if at least five or more Covid-19 cases have been reported within a 1km radius.
For Faridabad, even one case makes the area a hotspot. “This is the reason we have a higher number of containment zones than Gurugram does. We are sealing areas with just one Covid case too,” said Pankaj Kumar Setia, a containment review committee member, Faridabad, and sub-divisional magistrate, Badkhal.
While the number of containment zones in Faridabad is double than the containment zones in Gurgaon, the areas sealed are smaller in radius as compared to those in Gurugram.
“We are not taking the 1km radius area for sealing. Even though we are sealing areas with one case, they are 200 or 300 metres. For example, if a case comes from one house, we seal one the lane where the house is situated. The reason is that we cannot afford to seal an entire sector or colony because that would mean that a lot of manpower would need to be deployed there. When we seal smaller areas, they are easy to manage and we can effectively contain the spread of Covid-19,” added Setia.
On Thursday, Faridabad had increased the number of containment zones to 151. However, with 105 cases reported, the district administration scaled up sealing of areas, adding 44 more in a day.
Projections for Gurugram say that the city will see 1.5 lakh Covid-19 cases by July. Officials said sealing off entire areas that have only one case will not be practical or feasible.
“It would result in too many containment zones and will mean deploying more manpower. Moreover, with the current projections, if we start sealing areas with even one Covid-19 case, the entire district will turn into a containment zone,” said a health department official.
Meanwhile, the health department has sent 19,378 samples for testing so far. Of these, 16,955 samples have tested negative while the reports of 420 are awaited.