When the entire country is grappling to deal with COVID-19, Bhilwara model appears to be the answer for its hotspot across the country. Additional Chief Secretary Health Rohit Kumar Singh, along with his team, is playing a pivotal role to contain it. So much so that IAS officers association appreciated it.

With the news of the spread of the disease in the district, the government locked down the city as a first step on March 20, even five days before the national lockdown was announced. Lockdown eventually turned into a strict curfew with even essentials being delivered to homes.

Affected areas identified with aggressive screening is done to them having travel history, contact was made with those who had traveled and vulnerable groups such as health workers. Further those with symptoms were tested and they and their close contacts were quarantined and then a focus on offering treatment to the positive cases. This has now been followed up with careful monitoring.

The government also ensured no movement to prevent others from coming in and spreading the infection further, and possible positive cases from moving out and infecting others. Once it is contained to a specific cluster, check who may have an infection. Keep such cases away from others, to prevent them from spreading it. Eventually, lack of mobility and the lack of contact with positive cases have diminished the rate of infections.

Going local and as deep as possible within specific geographies, ensure deployment of adequate human resources to screen and test and ramp-up of health infrastructure to isolate made it a success story so far.