Two of city’s containment zones in Sec 38, 52 on the road to lose the tag

AS PER THE CENTRAL RULES, A CONTAINMENT ZONE GETS DENOTIFIED ONLY IF NO NEW COVID CASE IS REPORTED IN THE LOCALITY FOR 28 DAYS SINCE THE LAST CASE TESTS NEGATIVE

CHANDIGARH : Even as the UT administration struggles to contain the spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in Bapu Dham Colony, two of the six containment zones in the city – Sectors 38 and 52 – are on their way to shake off the tag.

The six containment zones in the city are Kacchi Colony in Dhanas, parts of Sector 30B, Bapu Dham Colony in Sector 26, Sector38 EWS Colony, Sector 52 and Shastri Nagar in Manimajra.

Significantly, while Bapu Dham Colony has become the epicentre of the pandemic in Chandigarh with 73% (202) of city’s total cases (275), the spread of disease in other five zones has been largely restricted, with only 33 cases (12%).

The last positive Covid-19 case in Sector 38 was on April 29, and no new case has been reported in Sector 52 since April 30. At Shastri Nagar, Manimajra, the last positive case was on May 2, Kacchi Colony on May 5 and at Sector 30B, on May 7.

As per the central govern

ment’s guidelines, a containment zone can be denotified only if no new case of Covid-19 is reported in the locality for 28 days since the last case tested negative.

Sector 38 completes the 28-day period on May 26, and Sector 52 on May 27. For the other three areas, the expected timeline for denotification is May 30 for Shastri Nagar, June 4 for Sector 30B and June 8 for Kacchi Colony.

“A final call on declaring these areas as non-containment zones will be taken soon after health authorities are consulted,” deputy commissioner Mandip Singh Brar said.

NO MAJOR OUTBREAK IN FOUR ZONES

There is no active case in four of the six zones – Sector 38, Sector 52, Shastri Nagar and Kacchi Colony, and these areas have so far reported only 11 cases in all against the 438 people tested there. While Bapu Dham Colony has 82 active cases, there is only one active case in Sector 30B.

LOW TESTING RECORDED IN CONTAINMENT ZONES

Of all the people tested in Chandigarh, only 36% are from the six containment zones, even though these areas account for 85% (235) of the total cases in the city.

In the city’s first containment zone — a part of Sector 30B — which has nearly 590 households, only 113 people have been tested, of which 22 were found infected with coronavirus.

This accounts for a 19.4% positivity rate, 2.9% less than Bapu Dham Colony where 202 of 905 (22.3%) people tested were found positive.

Though the first case, that of a health worker, was reported in Bapu Dham Colony on April 24, which was followed by a consistent rise in cases, it was only on May 22 that the UT health department scaled up testing, and decided to test all residents living in the same building as the positive persons.