PMC declares 42 micro-containment zones in city to arrest Covid surge

After two months of declaring Pune as a no-containment zone.

Decentralising the powers of declaring micro-containment zones based on the Covid-19 spread in the city, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has declared a 42 micro-containment zones across the city after a gap of two months of declaring it a no-containment zone.

The PMC administration has changed its strategy on containing the spread of Covid-19 after it started witnessing a surge last month. Active cases in the city had gone down to 1,383 in the first week of February after witnessing a peak of around 19,000 last year.

The decrease in active cases had led the civic body to declare no containment zones in the city on January 1 and it continued for the last two months. On the surge in Covid cases, PMC mayor Murlidhar Mohol had recently said the civic body would not impose a lockdown in the city, but would instead declare micro-containment zones as per the situation of the locality. “Citizens must behave responsibly to ensure there is no second wave in the city otherwise it will be tough for everyone to live a normal life,” he had said.

“All activities and services in the city were started to bring life to normal. Citizens have suffered a lot due to the closure of activities and services. Thus, the PMC does not want to bring in restrictions again and would focus on hotspots by declaring a containment zone only of small locality or a building. The powers for the same have been given to the assistant municipal commissioner of the ward offices,” said civic officer.

They have been asked to declare buildings and small localities with a minimum of five active patients as micro-containment zones, he said.

Accordingly, the city has 42 micro-containment zones in the city. These are declared in 10 of the 15 ward offices in the city. The maximum number of micro-containment zones are seven in Hadapsar-Kondhwa ward office area while five each in the area under Bibwewadi and Dhankawadi ward offices, four each in the area under Sinhagad Road, Shivaji Nagar and Warje-Karvenagar ward offices, three each in Wanowrie and Nagar Road ward office, and two in Kondhwa-Yewalewadi ward office.

As per directions for the micro-containment zone, families of infected persons have been disallowed to move out of their houses except for the hospital. There would be restrictions for entry of outsiders in the premises but other residents in the locality are permitted to move out of the house for necessary work. Residents of micro-containment zones have been given instructions on their movements during the affected period.

Source: Read Full Article