Containment zones in a flux, Kolkata police draw up fresh plans

KOLKATA: Buying groceries and essentials from fixed shops, not moving out beyond permitted hours in the morning and not attending offices on a regular basis — these are among some of the rules KMC and Kolkata Police want to enforce in the new containment zones after lockdown rules are eased in other parts of the city.

The cops have also made it clear that they cannot allow their men to monitor all zones round the clock.“We will deploy personnel only when necessary. The city is limping towards normality and our force has been fighting this battle for over two months,” said an officer, reminding how around 90 Kolkata policemen themselves have tested positive.
After battling the Amphan impact for the last one week, both agencies have started demarcating the zones yet again. The new containment zone classification is expected to be out any time soon. “Now that there is a steady rise in cases, we will sit with KMC again on this issue. This is also important as transport — especially autos — are back on the road. Several areas need to be regraphed and a more micro-level intervention will be required. Police said that with the south — especially posh colonies — showing upward trend, fencing the entire colony was no more the only containment solution,” said an officer.
KMC officials said their plan of action was ready. “We are organising special training of 72 technicians involved in door-to-door swab collection. The three-day training has started with 24 people in each batch,” said a nodal officer of KMC for Covid-19. KMC has also decided to conduct special screening of people with the slightest symptoms through random sampling at ward 73 as a pilot project. This ward has no Covid cases so far. The measure is to stop its spread to new wards and areas.
“We have laid special emphasis on special screening and the exercise will be conducted on a regular basis in all the wards with positive Covid cases. Only 15 of the 144 wards in the city have not had a single Covid case till date,” said officials.
Both KMC and police are also hopeful of including several of those wards with just one containment zone — at present there are 38 such wards — in either the C group (which allows all economic activities) or B group that will see greater relaxations. “Even wards with two containment zones are showing rapid progress. For example, ward 60 (Beniapukur) that had 10 containment zones even three weeks ago now barely has two small containment zones. There are 43 wards with two containment zones. By simple maths, we have at least 101 wards that can witness greater economic activities in the coming days,” said a joint CP at Lalbazar.
According to a senior official in the KMC health department, the civic body has reasons to feel confident with its interventions after some containment areas in boroughs VI and VII finally showing progress after more than a month. “The number of Covid-19 patients steadily rose in some worst-affected containment areas. At least we have been able to bring down the numbers,” the official pointed out. The civic officials are also keeping a close watch on areas such as Burrabazar, Chitpore, Jorasanko and Amherst Street-Bowbazar areas where Covid-19 positive cases are now finally declining.