Forty-one people living in a building in Kapashera in south-west Delhi tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday. The building was declared a containment zone on April 19, a day after one COVID-19-positive case was detected there.
“A total of 175 samples were collected on April 20 and 22 of all the residents in the building and sent to NIB (National Institute of Biologicals), Noida. Sixty-seven reports have come today (Saturday), out of which 41 are positive,” said a Delhi government official, adding that most inhabitants of the building are migrant workers.
Delayed results
“The tests were conducted 13 days ago but the results were delayed due to issues of blockade at the Delhi-Noida border and the backlog at NIB, Noida. As all the individuals are asymptomatic and results are 13 days old, the [South West] district administration is conducting retests on Sunday and Monday to assess the present status of all positive cases,” the official said.
According to the guidelines, an area is declared a containment zone when there are at least three positive cases. The South West district administration took the proactive decision of sealing and containing the Kapashera building even when only one case was reported on April 18 as there were a lot of people living in it, said an official.
“First, a woman tested positive on April 18. As it was a small building and people were sharing toilets, we decided to seal the building. Since then, all of them have been restricted to the building and because of this, the spread of the virus has been contained to the premises,” said Rahul Singh, District Magistrate (South West).
Mr. Singh said medical teams are present at the spot round-the-clock and the condition of everyone in the building is stable.
Last month, the private secretary of Mr. Singh had tested positive for COVID-19, prompting the District Magistrate to go into self-isolation. Mr. Singh himself has tested negative for COVID-19.
