How Operation Shield helped Delhi government contain coronavirus COVID-19 in Dilshad Garden

New Delhi: Even as the country struggles to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, Delhi government’s newly-launched ‘Operation SHIELD’ is succeeding in controlling the menace in Dilshad Garden - one of the COVID-19 hotspots in the national capital. According to the Zee Media sources, Operation Shield has managed to stop the transmission of coronavirus in Dilshad Garden to a large extend and no new case has been reported in the past 10 days.

Delhi Government decided to launch the operation in Dilshad Garden, a densely populated area of the national capital since it had the potential to become a COVID-19 hotspot even before Nizamuddin Markaz became one. A woman had recently infected at least eight people, including a mohalla clinic doctor, with coronavirus in the locality.

Considering the situation, the government used Operation SHIELD - Sealing, Home Quarantine, Isolation and Tracking, Essential Supply, Local Sanitisation and Door-To-Door Checking - to control the spread of the virus in the area, 

A total of 123 medical teams screened more than 15,000 people living in 4,032 houses and hospitalised the coronavirus suspects, according to the Delhi Health Department. All this started days after a 38-year-old woman, along with her 19-year-old son, returned to Delhi on March 10, from Saudi Arabia.

On March 12, she developed fever and cough and went to a doctor in Mohalla Clinic. On March 15, the woman was taken to the GTB hospital where the doctors referred her to the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital.

On March 17, she tested positive for coronavirus and on March 18 the authorities traced that she had met nearly 81 people after returning from Saudi Arabia. On March 20, her brother and mother also tested positive. On March 21, the infection spread to her two daughters and on March 22 the clinic doctor who first saw her was also tested positive, the Health Department said.

Soon after she tested positive, Operation SHIELD was launched in Dilshad Garden. Dilshad Garden was converted into a containment zone and Operation SHIELD was activated after the woman tested positive and infected eight others.

The Delhi government traced all those who came in contact with the woman and quarantined them. "Under SHIELD, curfew was imposed in parts of Dilshad Garden and Old Seemapuri. The Delhi police and the Delhi government worked together to make this plan a success", the Health Department added.

The 123 medical teams surveyed the houses and asked a set of questions. The health department officials are still tracking the people of the area and if there are symptoms, then they are being quarantined.

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain told reporters that Dilshad Garden was the first successful implementation of Operation SHIELD.

"I feared a massive COVID-19 outbreak in the Dilshad Garden area after several people were found positive. It was transmitted from the woman who returned from Saudi Arabia and found COVID-19 positive," Jain said.

Jain said that After the CM Arvind Kejriwal instructed to implement Operation SHIELD at Dilshad Garden after the woman was found coronavirus positive.