Containment zones dwindle as civic body eases norms

Among the 15 zones, Royapuram had the highest number of containment zones, eight. It may be noted that on October 9, the city had 70 contaminant zones. At one point, the city was totally free of containment zones. Following an increase in new cases, the civic body modified the containment strategy and instructed its field officials to barricade streets, if two index cases were reported.

Earlier, the civic body was barricading streets only if there were three or more index cases. There are more than 39,000 streets.

An official said the civic body had further relaxed the containment restrictions. “Until a few days ago, we were removing barricades from streets if they did not report new cases for 14 days. Now, we have been asked to remove the barricades in seven days. Also, we have been asked to barricade any street if they report around 10 cases. Now, the zonal officials are given powers to decide based on the ground situation,” he said.

During the peak of the pandemic, the civic body had earmarked more than 1,000 streets as containment zones and restricted movement there. Initially, streets were blocked if they reported even one case.