DHUBRI, April 18 - Following the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare declaration that Dhubri district was under Red Zone for COVID-19, the district administration here has geared up to convert the area to orange zone and finally to a green zone.
�Dhubri district has been declared as a Cluster Red Zone, where the lockdown will be implemented in a more strict way,� said ADC Pallav Mazumder.
Although till now, only four COVID-19 positive cases have been detected, the administration has made four containment zones in the entire district � Jhohrapara Pt-III under Dharmasala block, Kazipara Pt-IV under Chapar block, Hakama Pt-I under Raniganj Block and part of Dhubri town under the Dhubri Urban area. A 3-km radius, with the houses of the COVID-19 positive patients at the epicentre, has been sealed as containment zone.
�These areas are being sanitised with the help of Fire and Emergency Services and the public places that fall in these areas are being specially sanitised,� said District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) project officer M Sarkar.
He said health teams were visiting door to door in these areas and are not only spreading awareness about COVID -19, but are also testing them.
Sarkar said officials in the containment zones have been instructed to visit other patients also door to door to facilitate them with the e-Help system for telemedication. �Under this system, a patient can consult some of the best doctors through laptops taken by the health workers, and the doctors will prescribe medicines�.
Police has also geared up after the district was put under red zone. �We have five extra companies including central paramilitary forces, SSB and BSF which have been deployed all over the district along with our officials,� said Hinaya Barman, Additional SP of Dhubri. �They have been instructed to implement the lockdown protocol as per instructions.�
Meanwhile, a total of 312 persons who were mass quarantined have been released and their transportation to reach their homes has been facilitated. As many as 280 persons are still in mass quarantine. According to the health officials, till now, 217 samples for COVID-19 tests have been taken, of which 70 results are awaited.
Sashi Gupta, a microbiologist of Dhubri Civil Hospital, has been hospital quarantined. According to health officials, he has been kept in quarantine as he took the initial samples for COVID-19 tests, out of which one tested positive. Officials said that when Gupta took the samples, proper PPEs were not available at the civil hospital. �We also tested his sample that turned out negative, but he was still quarantined for 14 days.�
