COVID-19: Delhi govt starts sanitising city's red, orange zones

The Delhi government on Monday launched a massive sanitisation drive in the city's COVID-19 containment areas, declared as red zones, and high-risk zones, identified as orange zones, to prevent the spread of coronavirus. The administration ran a pilot disinfection drive using hi-tech Japanese spray machines at the Rajinder Nagar Assembly constituency.

"The key target of the Delhi government is to focus on the containment zones, therefore, the disinfection drive will start with the red zones. In Rajinder Nagar Vidhan Sabha, we have started a pilot project with three such machines in the presence of experts to analyse the performance and results thereof." local MLA Raghav Chadha said.

"We sanitised the whole area and studied all the necessary parameters. After a careful consultation with the experts, it has been decided that this is a fully equipped technology, and the disinfection drive should immediately start at the containment zones," he said. This is the first time in India that such advanced Japanese technology is being used to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, he claimed.

The machine is very flexible as its length is adjustable, and therefore, it can easily enter narrow lanes, the AAP leader said. Farmers use these machines to spray disinfectants in their farmlands. These are specifically equipped for disinfection and sanitization works, Chadha said. The chemical composition used for the disinfection drive adhered to WHO guidelines. These machines spray the disinfectants in a way that can kill the germs and virus at any solid surface, a statement said.

Chadha later tweeted, "Did a pilot with hi-tech Japanese spray machines equipped with ability to disinfect & sanitize large areas upto 20,000 sq mtrs an hour, under the "Mukhyamantri Delhi Sanitization Drive. Rajinder Nagar Constituency sanitized by these machines using micro atomized disinfectant."

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had on Sunday said that PI Industries an agriculture sciences company have given his government 20 hi-tech Japanese machines that are capable of disinfecting 20,000 square-meter area in an hour. Besides, 50 smaller machines of the Delhi Jal Board will also be deployed in the disinfection drive.

Areas where positive COVID-19 cases are being found have been declared as containment zones. Till Sunday afternoon, 34 hotspots in the national capital were identified as COVID-19 containment zones.

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