With Chandigarh being declared as Covid-19 hotspot (red zone) by the Central Government, the UT Administration will now follow two new protocols including testing all suspect cases and stringent measures to restrict unnecessary movement at the city’s borders.
Chandigarh, which is a joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, has been declared as Covid-19 (Coronavirus) hotspot, in a list of 170 such districts released by the Central Government.
The city has so far recorded 21 positive Coronavirus cases, out of which nine have already recovered and no death has been reported till Thursday evening. No new positive case has been reported in the past four days.
While 1738 were put in home quarantine as a precautionary measure, 1328 have completed the quarantine period.
UT Home-cum-Health Secretary Arun Kumar Gupta told The Pioneer, “Since the city has been declared a Coronavirus hotspot by the Central Government, the Administration would be following two additional protocols. Now, testing of all suspect cases would be done and strict measures will be taken to restrict movement at city’s border.”
Elaborating, Gupta said, “Earlier, testing of symptomatic cases, asymptomatic direct contacts and high-risk contacts of a confirmed case were done. Now, testing of all suspect cases will be done. If anyone is reporting influenza like illness (ILI) symptoms (fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose), that person will be tested for Coronavirus within 3-4 days in the city. Though the protocol says seven days, we have decided to conduct test in such cases in 3-4 days.”
He said, “The entire city is now a containment zone, so stringent measures would be taken at city’s borders to restrict movement. We have given 50 thermal scanning devices to the UT Police to ensure thermal screening at all the city’s border areas. Besides, movement of individuals at inter-state borders will be allowed only for essential services and urgent reasons.”
“Another protocol is to conduct door to door survey for Coronavirus symptoms, which had already begun in Chandigarh. 6.85 lakh city’s population has been covered through door to door survey and screening till now,” Gupta said.
“During the ongoing survey, 3 cases were found to have Coronavirus symptoms but they have been tested negative for the disease,” he added.
A nationwide lockdown had begun from March 25 (12 am) while curfew was imposed in Chandigarh on March 24 (12 am) to ensure social distancing and combat the spread of Coronavirus.
The UT Administration has already approached Punjab and Haryana Governments to run their offices in Chandigarh with minimal staff, since the entire city has been declared as hotspot district and is under curfew. Apart from this, the UT Director General of Police has been directed to intensify checking in borders and to ensure that only the pass-holders and authorized persons are allowed to enter the capital city.
Notably, as per Centre’s guidelines, restrictions will continue to apply on Covid-19 hotspots for the next 28 days and there will be no relaxations after April 20, which will be applicable to non-hotspots in the country. A district, however, could move from the red to the green zone if it does not report any case for 28 days, and vice-versa.