Zone of comfort: Three Maha districts keep coronavirus at bay By Eknath Makne
Administrations in these districts have ascribed theresult to early preventive steps taken in view of the COVID-19threat, strict adherence to social distancing, tracing andisolating people who have entered their jurisdiction fromabroad and other parts of the state and citizen cooperation.
At the same time, the administrators of these Vidarbhadistricts said they are not being oblivious of the threat, butmore vigilant every day in the face of the big challenge thedisease has posed worldwide.
When asked about the steps taken, Wardha DistrictCollector Vivek Bhimanwar said the authorities swung intoaction by closing down educational institutes, swimming poolsand clubs early in March and sealed district borders tightly.
He said in line with the stress of the Indian Councilof Medical Research (ICMR) on social distancing to contain thespread of the coronavirus, the district administrationidentified crowded places and quickly decongested them.
Expounding his point, Bhimanwar said the authoritiesdecongested a big market in Wardha at 18 places.
Likewise, they allotted time slots on different daysto ration card holders to pick their quota of food grains frompublic distribution system (PDS) shops.
We cannot stop goods movement to the districtcompletely. But at our level, we stopped vegetables comingfrom the adjoining districts.
To avoid scarcity, we linked the wholesalers withfarmers directly. Hence, there was no shortage (of fooditems), he told over the phone.
Bhimanwar said the administration has been keeping avigil on those who have come to Wardha from abroad and otherdistricts.
We identified around 16,500 people coming to thedistrict from Mumbai and Pune and also 192 who came fromabroad and isolated them, he said.
Similarly, Bhimanwar said 22 individuals from Wardha,who had attended the religious congregation the TablighiJamaat had organised in Delhi last month, were traced withinseven-eight hours and isolated.
The religious congregation had emerged as a key sourceof the coronavirus spread in the country.
We took their samples and fortunately, all of themtested negative. We kept a watch on them so that they did notmix with the other local people, he said.
Mindful of neighbouring Nagpur, Amravati and Yavatmaldistricts reporting COVID-19 cases, the official said theauthorities are not taking any chance and are engaged inhouse-to-house surveys.
We have also got 61 labour camps, in which 8,800migrant workers are living right now. Fortunately, no positivecase has been reported till date.
"But we are taking care and next one month will be achallenge again, he added.
Bhandara District Collector M J Pradip Chandren, too,said to have taken prompt steps in anticipation of the crisis.
He talked about shutting down hotels, industries andschools in a phased manner a few days before the nationwidelockdown came in force (on March 25) and stopping movement onsmall roads by erecting wooden barricades.
The official said the administration carried outdoor-to-door surveys in the district, which has a populationof around 13 lakh, and added that the fourth round of suchinspection is on right now.
We prepared the list of who came from abroad, whocame from other districts and who are showing symptoms (anyonehaving fever, cough, running nose). We kept a watch on thesethree groups.
We kept a lot of people under home quarantine. Evennow, the figure is 11,000 (of people who are under homequarantine).
"We were very strict about the quarantine and evenVIPs were kept under observation, Chandren said.
Chandren also said to have studied in detail the first50 positive cases reported in Maharashtra and decided thecourse of Bhandara administrations actions accordingly.
He, however, praised the local administration andcitizens for their support in ensuring there were no positivecases in the district till date.
Gadchiroli District Collector Deepak Singla could notbe reached for his comments despite repeated attempts.
According to the Maharashtra government, Washimdistrict reported one positive case as of April 23, but thepatient has now tested negative and will be discharged.
Hence, there is no positive case in Washim too, itsaid on Friday.
As of April 23, Sindhudurg, Parbhani, Beed, Nanded andGondia districts have reported one positive case each.
Maharashtra has reported 6,427 positive cases and 283deaths till Thursday.
Of these, Mumbai has reported 4,205 positive cases and167 deaths -- highest in the state. Pune is second in terms ofCOVID-19 cases and fatalities in the state.