New Delhi, Jun 5 (IANS): While the national capital is all set to enter the second phase of the 'Unlock' where various public spaces like places of religious worship are being opened, north west Delhi's Tarun Enclave is keeping the haunt of lockdown days alive.
The area, which got its first case on May 24, saw a rapid rise in the cases and by the onset of June, it became a cluster of cases following which the authorities decided to convert it into a containment zone.
"Now therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred upon the District Authority under various provisions of Disaster Management Act, 2005 read with the Delhi Epidemic Diseases, COVID-19 Regulations, 2020 and after consultation with DTF & Rapid Response Team of North West District, I, Sandeep Mishra, District Magistrate, District North West hereby declare the following areas as Containment Zone and Buffer Zone to prevent the further spread of COVID-19," an official order reads.
On May 24, after the first case was reported in the area, as per precautionary protocol, the local police cordoned off the area and further the whole area was sanitized in order to remove the possibility of community transmission.
Immediately after the detection, two teams were formed to conduct house to house survey in Tarun Enclave, Pitampura. Following this, the authorities urged the DM for sealing off the area, banning entry and exit of the population from the containment area.
In the said area, from house no. 130-340, more than 750 people have been asked to live in self quarantine while the said specific area has been made a containment zone, the whole area of Pitampura has been put under the "buffer zone" category.
It is being widely reported that the cases came up after a maid kept working daily in a household and didn't stop even during the nationwide lockdown. The virus spread from this woman to the children of the household and from the children to the other members of the family.
While the children of the said house, who went out to play with other children, spread the COVID-19 virus among their friends, the adults too were active spreaders of the virus as they regularly visited the nearby park and thus the infection spread rapidly.
IANS made several attempts to contact Sandeep Mishra, District Magistrate, north west Delhi, however, the officer didn't respond.
According to the Health Ministry data as of Friday morning, the national capital has more than 25,000 confirmed cases, including 650 who succumbed to it while 9,898 have recovered and have been discharged from the hospitals.