Detailing the government's plan to contain local outbreak of
coronavirus,
Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, MoHFW, underlined that the affected areas have been divided into two zones-
Containment zone and
Buffer Zone. The containment zone has been divided into sectors with 50 houses each (30 houses in difficult areas) emphasised Agarwal. The cluster-containment strategy has yielded positive results, said the official.
Containment zones are created to map the local transmission of the disease and prevent the contagion from spreading. The rapid response team (RRT) identifies containment zones based on the extent of cases/contacts listed and mapped by them, added Agarwal. He also said that if required, based on the mapping of contacts and cases, the containment zone is refined.
In order strengthen govt's efforts to contain the novel coronavirus, country's districts will now be classified into three categories—hotspot districts which report a large number of positive cases, non-hotspot districts which record a few coronavirus cases and green zones which have not reported fresh cases for some time. The ministry has identified 170 districts as hotspots, and 207 districts as non-hotspots.
A buffer zone of an additional 5-kilometre radius (7 Kms in rural areas)/administrative boundary of including neighbouring districts/per-urban zone shall also be identified. The efforts are in consonance with government's micro plan to contain local coronavirus transmission.