Strict lockdown implementation, quick contact tracing: Know how Rajasthan's Bhilwara fought coronavirus spread

Bhilwara: One of the worst affected districts due to coronavirus in Rajasthan, Bhilwara has set up an example and has laid down a successful model of fighting coronavirus through its successful implementation of plans. Located 240 km from Jaipur Bhilwara followed strict implementation of lockdown by the state administration, strategic containment planning was done.

Efforts of healthcare workers who stretched working hours to conduct more and more tests helped in detecting cases faster in the district. The Bhilwara state's health department claims it has ensured 100 percent screening of peoplein the district.

There are a total of 1,910 villages in the district and every panchayats, panchayat samitis and local SDMs and BDOs were involved in the task to curb the spread of coronavirus.

'Corona captains' were appointed from among SDMs and BDOs, who in turn identified four-five people among the panchayat members, teachers and ASHA workers to be ‘corona fighters’. Their task was to go door-to-door, monitor and spread awareness about the infection.

As many as 3,000 teams were formed to reach out to 32 lakh people of the district and 6,000 people were quarantined in an effort to vanquish the virus.

Here's the list of strategies which Bilwara followed to lower the graph of coronavirus spread:

- The quick decision of imposing a curfew and a complete lockdown including sealing the district borders and cutting the movement of public and private vehicles.

- Immediate mapping of positive cases and their contacts. Contact tracing, then identifying clusters and secondary level contacts.

- Immediately forming a containment zone of one kilometer within the city and then, doing a very extensive survey, reaching everybody in the city with some 3000 teams and going to 2,15,000 houses and 10 lakh people in the city and some people are double-counted. According to the health department, more than 6,50,000 homes and 24 lakh people were screened in urban and rural Bhilwara, covering everybody in the district.

- The entire district of Bhilwara was sealed and 27 chowkis were established. Boundaries were sealed.

- The district administration acquired all hotels in the district and brought it under its jurisdiction. These hotels, with a combined total of 1541 rooms, were turned into quarantine centres where nearly a thousand people were quarantined.

- Lockdown restrictions, which were place since March 20, were tightened to curfew-like levels from April 3. Between March 20 and April 2, stores selling essential commodities were allowed to stay open.

- On April 3 even these stores were ordered shut and only home delivery of essentials was allowed. Nobody is permitted to venture out of their homes without prior permission.