Haryana corona hotspots lie in Delhi’s neighbourhood

<br>A majority of the cases came from four districts that lie within 50-60 km of Delhi.

After Muslim-dominated Nuh (Mewat) and upscale Gurugram, Faridabad and Palwal districts have become state’s coronavirus new hotspot where the virus containment plans also came into effect.

The only saving grace for them is that no new case was reported from the hotspot districts in the past 24 hours.

Nuh has the highest number of 38 cases, followed by 32 in Gurugram and 28 each in Palwal and Faridabad.

A day earlier, Health Minister Anil Vij told media that out of active 136 coronavirus patients in the state, 108 belonged to the Tablighi Jamaat, which means nearly 80 per cent of them belonged to the Jamaat — the super-spreader.

Vij said 15,000 people with foreign travel history had been quarantined.

He held the Tablighi Jamaat accountable for the Covid-19 spread that was otherwise under control in the state.

On the containment plan for each district, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Rajeev Arora said the government is undertaking extensive screening, sampling, and testing to trace cases and prevent local transmission.

“We are going to test 450 samples in all hotspots — Gurgaon, Nuh, Palwal and Faridabad — and a minimum 125 tests in other districts,” he said.

He said the state is currently in Stage II. “We have to identify symptomatic persons and their contacts.”

According to state’s health bulletin, Haryana has so far sent 3,496 samples for testing out of which 2,443 have come out negative, while the result in remaining 892 is awaited.

Palwal Chief Medical Officer Brahm Deep Singh said a majority of people who have tested positive for coronavirus in the district have attended the Markaz or came into contact with those who returned from Markaz.

Director General of Police Manoj Yadava said the Tablighi Jamaat members entered the state ahead of the March 25 nationwide lockdown.

“The violation on their part is that they hid their travel history and were actively socialising with people,” he said.

On Thursday the state recorded three positive cases, much relief from a day earlier when 24 cases were reported.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who sanctioned Rs 5 crore for sanitization of 2,588 panchayats, has asked the Deputy Commissioners to prepare containment plans as well as set up committees to implement them to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

The government has prepared district containment plans as a precaution, an official statement said on Thursday.

A spokesman said 36 villages in Nuh district, which reported 38 positive cases, have been declared as containment zone and its 104 villages as buffer zone so that people can be investigated.

The movement of residents in the containment zones is restricted and all these areas will be sealed by the police.

In Palwal district, another coronavirus hotspot, nine villages have been ordered to be sealed, declaring their area as a containment zone as well as 27 adjacent villages as buffer zone.

Similarly in Panchkula town, the Nada Sahib area, Civil Hospital in Sector 6, Command Hospital and bus stand have been declared as containment zones, while Moginand, Sector-7, MDC-4 and Sector-10 have been declared as buffer zones.

Thirteen areas in Faridabad district have been declared as containment zone, including Sectors 11, 37, 16, 3 and 28, Badkhal village, Green Field Colony, A.C. Nagar, Fatehpur Taga, Khori, Chandpur Aura, Mohana and Ranheda villages.

The spokesman said that no positive cases of corona have been reported so far in Rohtak, Mahendragarh, Bhiwani, Yamunanagar, Sirsa, Kurukshetra, Sonipat and Rewari districts.

Fourteen Italian patients were admitted to Medanta Hospital in Gurugram, out of which 13 have been discharged, the state’s Health Department bulletin said.

(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)

–IANS<br>vg/prs<br>