With more than 200 fresh cases of Covid-19 being reported from 41 wards falling under the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation everyday the district administration has earmarked at least a dozen micro containment zones in places like Salt Lake, Baguiati, Kestopur and Lake Town among others.
Active cases in New Town have crossed 300, sources said. Parts of four housing complexes there have been declared as micro-containment zones by the North 24-Parganas district administration.
Of them, a flat in Uniworld City, an apartment in Akanksha Cooperative Housing Society, a portion of Ruchira Heights, near Chinar Park, and a flat at Sukhobrishti Housing Complex in Action Area III feature on the list.
In Salt Lake, houses in several blocks including a couple in FD Block, one in GD Block, two buildings in AK Block and one each in IB, BF and HA blocks have been declared micro-containment zones.
According to a health department official, multiple residents of these houses have tested positive for Covid-19 and hence they had to declare them as micro containment zones.
Address confusion
The department also earmarked a row of houses from CB 86 to CB 90 as micro-containment zone. There was some confusion on Tuesday as the health department’s list initially mentioned CD 86 to 90 as a containment zone, but several residents protested that no one was down with Covid-19 nor did anyone have any symptoms since the past fortnight in those houses.
“We are aware that several residents are claiming that they are not down with Covid-19. We will conduct tests again there specifically for them to establish the claims,” an official had said. On Wednesday, the error in the address was rectified on the list.
Several residents of the block said that at least two were seen stepping out of the houses marked as containment zones in CB Block. They were warned of penal action by the cops after neighbours complained to the local police station.
Unlike during the second wave, the zones are hardly being monitored and the cops have just set up guardrails in front of the houses. On Wednesday, The Telegraph Salt Lake could not spot a single policeman stationed outside or near several of the micro-containment zones.
A senior officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate said that they were monitoring the houses through patrolling teams throughout the day. “We have requested them not to step outdoors and are keeping a watch as well,” the officer said.
Another building cordoned off in BF Block Rushil Sengupta
Polls in the way
Even as the cases continue to rise all across Salt Lake and its added areas like Duttabad, where shanties stand chock-a-block with each other, the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation is yet to start a safe house unlike the Calcutta Municipal Corporation that has already activated several of them.
Biswajit Panda, the sub-divisional officer of Bidhannagar, said that they had held a meeting with health department officials as well as those from the corporation and are planning to set up safe houses in the next few days.
“We will activate our existing infrastructure like schools that are already closed and even hospitals run by the civic body to accommodate patients. We have had several meetings and we hope to open safe houses soon,” said Panda.
With the elections round the corner, a section of residents claimed that the civic body was doing little to help check the spread. An EE Block resident, with several positive cases in her building, said that frantic calls to the corporation helpline had yielded no results.
“The line went on ringing. We had called multiple times to ask them to spray sanitiser inside the building but nobody picked up,” said the resident, who did not wish to be named.
In the meantime, in New Town, vaccination for 15 to 18-year-olds has started at the centre near Pride Hotel. The NKDA safe house is supposed to resume in a few days near Tank 12 in Action Area II. There are plans to start a second Ma canteen beside Kestopur Canal near Balaka Abasan to help those whose livelihoods are being affected by the pandemic with cooked food.
Additional reporting by Sudeshna Banerjee