New Delhi, May 24 (IANS): Even though coronavirus cases in the national capital have been increasing by 500-600 cases per day, the Delhi government claims to have controlled the spread of the infection in about 40 containment zones.

According to the Delhi government, with the help of Operation SHIELD, about 40 containment zones in the city have not reported any new cases in the last two weeks.

After an area is declared a containment zone by the district administration, the Delhi government starts 'Operation SHIELD' -- Sealing, Home Quarantine, Isolation and Tracking, Essential Supply, Local Sanitisation and Door-To-Door Checking -- to control the spread of the virus.

"Operation SHIELD has been very effective in controlling the spread of the covid infection. By completely sealing the area, we were able to check the spread of the infection. Barring a few zones, new cases have not been reported from the contained areas," a government official said.

The official added that there were about 40 containment zones where no cases have been reported in the past 15 days.

So far, 126 containment zones have been formed in the city and as of Saturday, there were 92 active containment zones.

On March 26, J and K, L and H pockets of Dilshad Garden and G, H, J, Blocks, old Seemapuri became the first containment zone in the city.

A containment zone is formed after COVID positive cases are found in an area. While the guidelines suggested that there should be at least three cases in an area. Depending on the density, the administration can decide making an area a containment zone even with fewer cases.

For de-containing the area, there should be a minimum of four weeks in which no new cases should be reported.

After no new cases were found for four weeks, at least 34 zones have been de-contained in the past few weeks.

The national capital has reported 12,910 covid cases till Saturday.