JAIPUR: The “ruthless” Covid-19 containment model adopted by Rajasthan‘s Bhilwara since detecting the first of its 27 positive cases on March 19 has been acknowledged by the Centre as a potential template for states battling a spurt in infections.
At a video-conference with the chief secretaries of all states on Sunday, cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba said in his concluding remarks that there were two key takeaways from the review of strategies to combat the novel coronavirus pandemic – aggressive containment like in Bhilwara and preparation in terms of scaling up hospitals and quarantine facilities.
Additional chief secretary (health) Rohit Kumar Singh, who has been driving the containment campaign in the textile city along with district collector Rajendra Bhatt, said on Monday that health department teams screened 28 lakh people in the first 14 days since a doctor in a private hospital there tested positive.
The decision to implement a massive containment protocol was hastened by the background of the first case. The source of infection was unknown, and the fact that the patient was a doctor led health officials to fear a runaway spread of the virus