Ever since 4th March, medical authorities in the capital have scrambled to locate and isolate incoming Coronavirus victims - a hunt that began with a 45-year old man from Mayur Vihar, who gave the virus a ride all the way from Italy to Vienna and finally, India.

With the number of cases sharply rising from six to 31 within a week, Indian authorities have little time to waste. As for securing the capital, two unique governmental outfits - the âinfectious disease control cellâ and the district task force - have united to take on the mammoth task of screening through thousands of potential victims. According to a Hindustan Times report, a staggering 9,000 calls are made every day - two to each person on the coronavirus hitlist, checking whether or not the telltale signs and symptoms of the disease have surfaced.

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Since patient zero hit Delhi, a series of meetings have been taking place on the ninth floor of the Delhi secretariat and a four-room section of a Delhi-government office in Laxmi Nagar. The goal of these meetings is straightforward yet difficult - developing a plan to control and safeguard Delhiâs population against the virus.

Fortunately, the meetings have proceeded smoothly and immediate action has been taken since. âIn fact, the minutes of all the meetings were prepared on the very same day and circulated. It has all the information on what the state and the district level task force needs to do,â said an official from the health department to HT.

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As leader of the state-level task force designated with controlling the virusâ spread, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal turned his attention away from the cityâs ongoing crisis with violent hate crimes, and focused on the medical matter at hand. The minister seemed positive at the resulting press conference, although it was clear that the screening tests and scale of population would prove to be a serious challenge.

âEven those who did not show any symptoms during the screening at the airport are being tracked since in many cases it has been seen that the signs of the virus start showing in 14 days or more. So, those on the lists are under surveillance,â chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Wednesday after presiding over the first state task force meeting.

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Since the screenings began in mid-January, over 1.3 lakh people have been screened at the Delhi airport. The officials have been working overtime to look for the people who came in contact with those diagnosed with Covid-19 before they were sent to the isolation facility at Safdarjung hospital - in the case of patient zero, this list of potential infected ramped up to 92 individuals. 

With only 14 in Delhi and the rest scattered across the country, the authorities certainly have their work cut out for them.

Meanwhile, apart from contact-tracing and checking with the asymptomatic passengers, the district level task force has also been involved in sanitising places visited by suspected coronavirus victims. This is done by wiping all surfaces with a  1% hypochlorite solution - more commonly known as bleach solution.

âThere are proper guidelines for mopping and cleaning of various surfaces. Since the people tested positive, we have sanitised all the hotels that they were in and also informed them about infection-control measures. We have sensitised our own staff members,â said a government official on condition of anonymity.

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