For the third day in a row, the city of Bengaluru reported over 30 fresh positive cases of COVID-19 on Saturday. With the rising cases, the state is all set to scrap the concept of the containment zone.
The state government of Karnataka is all set to revise the standard operating procedure for containing the spread of the coronavirus from the positive tested patient. Earlier, the administration sealed the entire ward by declaring it as a containment zone. According to reports, the state is all set to do away with the concept of sealing the entire ward instead it will seal only the residence or the apartment of the infected person.
The sources say that the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike will be issuing the order stating the same. The move comes after the logistical challenges the administration faces in order to contain the entire ward as the city has unlocked itself. At first, the administration used to declare ward as a containment zone if a positive case was reported in the city. Later, the terms were revised and only the street where a person is tested positive would be sealed. If it was an apartment, three floors, one above and one below the house of the infected person would be defined as the containment zone. According to the BBMP War room bulletin, there are over 126 streets and 19 apartment complexes in 116 wards are declared as containment zones. BBMP Commissioner BH Anil Kumar said,
“There have been discussions on containing only a single home (of the COVID patient) and spare the rest of the road and ward. The containment zone regulation is evolving.”
Mild Community Spread In Padarayanapura
According to Anil Kumar, the city of Bengaluru has done better as there was no cluster of cases like it has been in cities like Mumbai and Chennai. He lauded the civic agency for containing the spread of infection. In the case of Padarayanapura, SK Garden and Mangammanapalya, Kumar acknowledged that there might have been mild community spread which has been now contained. While the containment zone referred to an area radius of 5 km around the residence of a positive person, blocking the entire ward and street would cause trouble for other residents, Kumar said. He further added,
“The person who tests positive may turn negative in less than three days, in which case sealing a locality or ward or road would be an injustice to those living there. The ministry of home affairs rules would be difficult to follow.”
Source: The Times of India
