Rajasthan health officer reveals how Bhilwara's 'ruthless containment' stopped spread of coronavirus

Overall, by March 30, 26 positive cases were detected and only one new case has been reported since in the district.

Of the 27 cases, 19 have now tested negative and nine have been discharged from hospital. To discuss the all about the action taken by the administration Shereen Bhan gets in conversation with Additional Chief Secretary of Health (Rajasthan) Rohit Singh.

First up, Singh spoke about the strategy implemented by the administration and said, "We progressed on a strategy of ruthless containment. We decided that as the likelihood of persons infected is very high, let us lockdown the city and create a containment zone with a one kilometre radius. We also created a buffer zone with a three kilometre radius and did not allow the movement of vehicles and sealed the borders.

"We then started visiting every person in the hot zone and then moved to the buffer zone, then in the city and then in the entire district. So, the strategy was ruthless containment, checking everyone for influenza like illness symptoms, logging their history and then checking them again."

He added, "We checked the health of over 20 lakh people and we identified 14,000 with influenza-like symptoms, we will continue to monitor their health. We created 7,000 teams to supported the district administration and contacted people from WHO, UNICEF and the government of India to work with us as a team. However, the key was to enable the district administration and empower them, keep guide them in the right direction, that was the key strategy."

Speaking about lockdown exit strategy, he said, "It has to be graded and it has to really be adapted to the situation on the ground in respective geographies. You cannot have a uniform strategy for a state or for the country, you will have to see where the hotspots are, which are your zones that require special attention. Given the nature of the economy and supply chains which are interlinked, it is a big challenge as we need to pay attention to local realities, but you also have to see the macro realities for India."