Recently the news has drawn our attention to Bhilwara in Rajasthan. Initially, it was because of the increasing number of cases in the city.
A week ago, Bhilwara was one of the hotspots of the virus but now, they are back in the news again for their methods of tackling coronavirus. But what is it that they are doing differently and how is it helping?
The strategy that Bhilwara is using is called SCST which stands for – Surveying, Combining, Screening and Testing . This methodological process seems to have done wonders in Bhilwara. Despite being a hotspot, the city did not report a single confirmed case of covid-19 in the past 5 days.
This town in Rajasthan came to be known as “India’s Italy” for the high number of cases arising there. Of the total 43 cases in Rajasthan initially, 20 were from Bhilwara.
What was worse was that of the 27 cases there, 17 were healthcare staff, including doctors. Infact, the first person to be infected was a doctor himself.
Since March 19, the city has been under curfew. There was a complete lockdown with city and district borders being sealed and a ban was imposed on any kind of movement including vehicles and people in the containment and buffer zones. These zones do not allow anyone to enter or exit.
There was also an extensive door-to-door survey done, covering 22 lakh of the city’s population and within a week, the entire population, comprising 28 lakh people had been screened to determine who was suffering from influenza like illness.
Many houses were in fact surveyed more than once to be sure of the findings. Around 7000 people were quarantined and also monitored via an app.
The city now disinfects its containment zones and hotspots every single day and that also extends to ambulances, police vehicles and public offices.
To make sure that people stay home and are safe, the city has sent mass stocks so that nobody runs out of food and there is enough time to prepare for what comes next.