Coronavirus-hit societies in Noida and Gurugram initiate lockdown

“It has never been this quiet,” an elderly resident of the Sector 100 society in Noida where a woman tested positive for Covid-19 said. The case was among three in Noida and Gurugram reported on Tuesday. The residential societies they lived in have entered lockdown. They can’t risk contagion. The Sector 100 society is home to about 425 families in seven highrises while the one in Sector 78, another where a person tested positive for the virus, has about 1,700 families in 20 towers. The health department sent 40-member teams to each society to screen residents and take down their medical information on Wednesday. Both have imposed total shutdowns, screening everyone who enters, restricting the entry of delivery personnel and asking domestic help and support staff to stay away. “Domestic helps for the elderly or people with special needs will be allowed in a day or two if things are alright,” general secretary of the society’s apartment owners’ association in Sector 100 said. In the Sector 78 society, children and the elderly have stopped stepping out into the common grounds. The Gurugram society in Sector 50, where a 40-year-old tested positive on Tuesday, has not initiated a complete lockdown but everything — from common areas to parks and vending zones — is being sanitized. “Security guards have been asked not to share their pens, wear masks and use sanitisers,” president of the RWA said.