Delhi: 5 districts see case spike, containment stepped up

According to data shared by district officials, South, Southeast and West have seen the highest spike between December 29 and January 2. In this period, South district, which has been on top of the list since cases started increasing, saw a spike from 175 to 484; Southeast district saw a jump from 124 to 492; while West saw cases increasing from 94 to 464.

Southwest and Northwest districts reported a spike of 94 to 460 cases and 83 to 449 cases respectively. Meanwhile, New Delhi and Central districts which were among the top three when cases had started to spike have dropped to the fifth and sixth spots with 387 and 388 cases respectively.

As per data, Northeast and Shahdara district have the lowest cases in comparison with other districts but have also seen sharp rise in the last five days — 12 to 120 cases and 17 to 246 respectively.

“Apart from DDMA guidelines, we are strengthening the containment plan to control cases. Earlier, only houses with three cases or more were micro-contained. But with cases rising, district officials are taking steps to cordon off the entire area if there are four or more positive cases. The number of containment zones in South West district has risen from 17 to 30 (in the past five days),” said a senior district official who did want to be named.

Southwest district has also started a paid isolation centre at Aerocity. “Anyone with space constraints at home, or who want to isolate themselves away from family members and are willing to pay, can stay here at an affordable price,” said the official.

DM East Sonika Singh said, “We have started containing houses and areas with a large number of cases. Earlier, there were 11 containment zones, now there are 24. Even if one person tests positive in a family, we micro-contain the houses and deploy civil defence volunteers. Further, we have enforced the odd-even rule at markets, stepped up vaccination and testing, and increased prosecution.”