Delhi: COVID Cases Decline, but Containment Zone Count Still Over 40,000

New Delhi: The number of COVID-19 cases reported in Delhi has reduced significantly in the last one week from over 11,000 cases logged on January 22, but the containment zones count remains over 40,000, according to official data.

A containment zone is created by authorities to check the spread of infection if at least three cases of coronavirus are recorded in a household or in a neighbourhood.

The surge in COVID cases in Delhi during the third wave of the pandemic are due to the Omicron variant of the virus which is highly transmissible.

Many families in a large number of neighbourhoods had tested positive, but medical experts have said that since the infection had happened at the same time, the recovery too will be quicker for the community as a whole, and there is less chance of more spread of infection as people are largely home isolated with a very little number of patients needing hospitalisation this time.

According to official data shared by the Delhi health department, the number of containment zones in the city stood at 41,095 on Friday, a fall from 42,388 on Thursday.

The number of containment zones on January 22 was 43,457 when 11,486 COVID cases were recorded.

The number of cases has dropped in the last one week, with over 4,000 cases logged on Friday.

However, the number of containment zones is still in the range of over 40,000.

If a household or a neighbourhood is put under a containment zone category, then movement of people in and out of that region is restricted.

District officials had earlier said that emphasis was being laid on micro containment to arrest the spread of the infection.

While home isolation protocols have undergone a change in the recent past, the containment zone regulations still remain the same, authorities said.

Sources in the district administration authorities in Delhi said the policy to manage containment zones is still the same, meaning, a zone can be put in a de-containment zone only after a 14-day period, to check the spread of infection.

So, number of positive cases may register a fall, but number of containment zones can be expected to show reduction only after passage of that stipulated time, they said.

According to a senior government official, "The decontainment strategy has not changed which means that an area is decontained only after 14 days. If in a house there are three people who have been infected, and it has been declared as a micro-containment zone, it will be decontained 14 days from the day the last patient recovers. The number is high due to this reason."

Delhi on Friday had reported 4,044 fresh COVID-19 cases and 25 deaths, while the positivity rate dropped slightly to 8.60 per cent, according to data shared by the city health department.

With this, the national capital's case count had increased to 17,64,41 and the death toll climbed to 25,769, according to Friday's bulletin. 

The number of COVID-19 tests conducted on Thursday had stood at 47,042, it said. Delhi had on Thursday reported 4,291 cases with a positivity rate of 9.56% and 34 deaths.

The number of daily cases in Delhi has been on the decline after touching the record high of 28,867 on January 13. The city had recorded a positivity rate of 30.60% on January 14, the highest during the ongoing wave of the pandemic.

It took just 10 days for daily cases to drop below the 10,000-mark.