COVID-19: 10 areas in 4 Gujarat cities put under cluster containment

The Gujarat government on Monday declared 10 Muslim- dominated areas in Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and Bhavnagar -- where Tablighi Jamaat members returned from Delhi -- as hotspots and put them under Cluster Containment Strategy with the help of civic and police officials.

After Delhi's Nizamuddin area emerged as a hotspot for coronavirus infection that later spread across the country, the areas in Gujarat where the Jamaatis returned also turned into hotspots.

The Gujarat government has now declared certain such areas in four major cities as hotspots.

"After the Tablighi Jamaat members returned to Gujarat from Nizamuddin Markaz, coronavirus cases have increased in the state. So, we have declared Ahmedabad areas of Bapunagar, Kalupur, Dariyapur, Danilimda, and Shah-e-Alam; Nagarwada and Syedpura in Vadodara, Sachin area in Surat, and Sandhyawada area in Bhavnagar to be cluster or hotspots so that nobody else has to suffer," said Ashwani Kumar, Secretary in the Chief Minister's Office (CMO).

"Despite the instructions by the state and central government regarding covid-19, the Jamaatis did not disclose details of travel, nobody came forward. So now, we had to take stern action like cluster containment. The municipal commissioners in these four cities will implement the strategy strictly," added Kumar.



Asked about any bias in taking action against a particular community, Ashwani Kumar said: "This is a real problem. Because of such Tablighi members who brought so much infection into the state, the government was forced to take stern action in certain pockets of major cities. This is a fact nobody can deny. It has nothing to do with bias against any community."

Out of the 16 new positive cases reported on Monday, 11 were in Ahmedabad, 2 in Vadodara and one each in Surat, Patan and Mehsana. All these patients are in their thirties.

"Out of the total 11 cases in Ahmedabad, 10 are from Muslim community, with 6 of them with travel history to Rajasthan and 3 to Delhi. The one male from Mehsana has also links to the Nizamuddin visit," Jayanti Ravi, Health Secretary, told the media on Monday.

As more and more positive cases are reported in Gujarat, especially from Ahmedabad's Muslim-dominated areas, the health authorities requested the community and its religious leaders to help the administration in curbing the virus spread.

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