Maharashtra's 'Islampur Pattern' leads in containing Coronavirus

Situated near the Pune-Bengaluru NH-4, Islampur town in Sangli district of Maharashtra has succeeded in flattening the curve of Coronavirus through its very own Islampur Pattern.

Sangli:At a time when the country is reeling under the Coronavirus crisis, and the number of positive cases increasing every day, the small town of Islampur in Sangli district of Maharashtra has succeeded in flattening the curve of Coronavirus and keeping it under control.

Even as the 'Bhilwara Model' of Rajasthan has attained fame for containing the spread of COVID-19, Maharashtra has notched equal success in its own 'Islampur Pattern' implemented in the Sangli district, officials said here on Saturday.

Situated near the Pune-Bengaluru NH-4, Islampur town had shaken the state health authorities on March 23 after notching a wide spread of coronavirus among 26 persons, mostly of a single family.

By Friday (April 10), Nationalist Congress Party President and Water Resources Minister Jayant Patil, whose Assembly constituency is Islampur, proudly announced that 22 out of 26 patients had tested negative and have been fully cured of Covid-19.

The spread was ostensibly from four persons of the family who had returned from a trip to Saudi Arabia and had tested positive, and within a week, infected 22 others in their immediate and extended clan.

It is attributed to the quick measures initiated by Resident Deputy Collector Nagesh Patil, Tahsildar Ravindra Sabnis, City President Nishkant Patil, Chief Officer of Municipality Pradnya Pawar, Shivsena leader Ashok Pawar, BDO Shashikant Shinde, Subdivisional police officer Krushnat Pingle, Police inspector Narayan Deshmukh initiated stern measures one after another.

Even as the first cases erupted in the district in the third-fourth week of March, rapid response teams were formed to track the 'high-risk' and 'low-risk' contacts before they could spread the disease further.

All symptomatic contacts were shunted to isolation and were tested, while those without symptoms were sent to institutional quarantine or home quarantine.

Since all the cases came from a single locality in the town, a one-km radius containment zone was created with a buffer zone outside it and seven entry-exit points to the area were completely sealed and monitored round-the-clock for any violations.

A list was prepared of the people who came in contact with the affected family. All were searched by a task force. Some 493 persons were detected who came in contact with these family members. 33 of them very nearly contacted with the family. The administration sent these 33 persons in the quarantine. Remaining people were stamped as home quarantine and the essentials were provided to them by home delivery by municipal members.

"All essential items of daily requirements like milk, fruits, vegetables, grocery etc. were delivered to people's doorsteps and social distancing was strictly enforced," said Patil.

Besides, medical and paramedical teams scoured 1,600 homes in the containment zones for the coronavirus scourge on a daily basis, taking people''s temperatures, checking them for cold, cough or any related symptoms.

Health Minister Rajesh Tope and Medical Education Minister Amit V. Deshmukh chipped in by setting up a special team from the Government Medical College, Miraj (Sangli), for this purpose.

"I am confident there will not be any further increase in Covid-19 positive cases in Islampur now. The containment and quarantine was 100 per cent successful. But the ongoing lockdown will also need to be strictly adhered to," said Patil.

Deshmukh and Tope termed it as a 'well-coordinated effort of the people, the administration and health authorities', which enabled Islampur -with a population of around 69,000 -beat the coronavirus on the lines of the Bhilwara Model of Rajasthan.

Relieved locals said that during the past over two weeks, they remained completely cut-off from the world physically and maintained contact through mobiles, internet or television as they patiently waited to emerge from the huge crisis, virtually unscathed.

(With inputs from IANS)

Also, read:Maharashtra extends lockdown amid surge in COVID-19 cases