After a surge in novel coronavirus cases in the capital city of Assam, which is being blamed on the failure of the containment zone policy, the State government imposed a complete lockdown in 11 of the 31 wards in Guwahati from yesterday.

Announcing the decision, Kamrup (Metro) deputy commissioner Biswajit Pegu said at least 170 people in Guwahati, who have tested positive for COVID-19, do not have any travel history which was a matter of “serious concern”.

The lockdown order was issued by Chief Secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna and it will be in force for at least two weeks. It will cover Guwahati Municipal Corporation ward nummbers: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 (partially), 15 and 16. All these wards are mainly located in the southwest side of the city and have majority of the COVID-19 positive cases.

“This time, the lockdown will be enforced in a very strict manner and by this evening me and police commissioner will finalise a strategy for that. Without a proper lockdown, it will be impossible to prevent community transmission in the city,” Pegu said.

According to the deputy commissioner, implementation of the containment zone policy has failed due to lack of mass awareness. “Inside most of the containment zones, people used to move around freely and come in contact with each other. So, all our efforts went in vain,” Pegu said.

He said public movement will be strictly prohibited in these areas and only emergency services along with food and health facilities will be allowed to operate. He requested everyone to go for home-delivery modes to avail essential commodities in their doorsteps to avoid coming out from home.

Violation of the lockdown norms will attract strict legal action under the Disaster Management Act, IPC and other legal provisions, he said. The lockdown has, however, exempted the employees of print and electronic media houses, including those who are involved with newspaper distribution.

“The district administration has identified the areas which will be covered by the lockdown notification after a detailed analysis of ground-level situation. In lockdown areas, we will try to test as many people as possible under the ongoing community surveillance programme,” he added.

Accurate testing is important to get out of the clutches of novel coronavirus. Stepping up efforts in this regard, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati, in association with RR Animal Healthcare Ltd and Guwahati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), has developed low-cost diagnostic kits. These are Viral Transport Media (VTM) kits, RT-PCR kits, and RNA isolation kits.

The VTM kits are the first-stop source used to collect nasal and oral swab specimens from an individual source to a laboratory safely for culture and testing. During this period, the virus, if present, in the sample specimens should remain intact until the testing procedure is completed. The kit consists of a comprehensive solution specially formulated for the collection and transport of SARS-CoV-2.

“To bring down the cost of kits, we have used material that are available in the local market and they are as per the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendation. We have handed over two batches of these kits to the National Health Mission, Assam, and GMCH. We are making them in bulk to make it available to larger population,” said Prof. Parameswar Krishnan Iyer, lead researcher, IIT Guwahati.

These kits comprise two transport media, one for nasopharyngeal and the other for oropharyngeal specimen collection swabs. Both of these are safe to use as they are recommended and validated by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as well. . The complete package is suitable for the collection, transport, maintenance, and long-term freezer storage of viral specimens. The unique formulation of the transport medium helps in preserving the viability of viruses for up to 72 hours (at refrigerated temperatures).

The swabs have been designed ergonomically with a pre-molded breakpoint on their shaft for enabling secure sampling. These sterile VTM kits comply with the CDC-recommended configurations for viral specimen collection for COVID-19 and are packed in user-friendly individual packs. “These kits will spur development of affordable and high-quality healthcare products in Assam and provide access to world-class kits and career opportunities to healthcare professionals and students,” said Prof Iyer.

In addition to the sterile VTM kits, the Institute has also developed RNA isolation kits and RT-PCR kits jointly with RR Animal Healthcare Ltd. The isolated and purified RNA is then converted to DNA by an enzyme Reverse Transcriptase (RT), which is used to confirm the presence or absence of COVID-19. The large-scale production of all these kits has commenced to meet the requirement of Assam and will be made available across the country soon.