Several housing complexes such as Urbana, Brindavan Gardens, Silver Spring and Prasad Exotica have been declared micro containment zones.
Police on Tuesday barricaded the entrances to some of the blocks of these housings, restricting movement of residents and visitors. Metro tries to decode what is allowed and what is not in these complexes.
Barricades
The police on Tuesday erected guardrails outside several housing complexes that have been declared micro containment zones by the state government.
“The barricades are meant for basic screening only and to ensure that no one is allowed to visit or step out of the affected flat. It doesn’t mean that other residents of the same building, who are not infected, will be stopped too,” said joint commissioner (headquarters) Subhankar Sinha Sarkar.
Helps and visitors
Different housing complexes have devised their own standard operating procedures to ensure that the affected person or families do not have visitors or step out themselves, but at the same time, do not run out of resources or supplies either.
In Urbana, out of the seven towers, five have been barricaded. “The towers that have five or more active cases have been barricaded. We are not allowing entry of maids or any other visitor in any of the flats in these towers. Visitors or online delivery are allowed only till the ground floor reception of the respective tower. The two towers, where the number of cases is less than five, have no restrictions,” said Urbana Facility Management director Debjani Mukherjee.
In Silver Spring, however, only the movement of visitors inside or outside the affected flats is restricted, said Silver Spring Apartment Owners’ Association president Rajesh Kumar.
Sushanta Ghosh, councillor of ward No. 108 and chairman of borough No. XII, said 45 persons from 28 families had tested positive for Covid in Urbana. “Only those 28 families cannot step out, nor can anyone visit them. Domestic helps, who work in any of these households, would not be allowed there for the next few days.”
Lack of uniformity
The police said there were no specific guidelines for implementation of the Covid protocol in the addresses that have been declared as micro containment zones.
Individual towers in some housings such as Urbana, where five or more persons are Covid positive, have been barricaded. However, in some others such as Prasad Exotica on Canal Circular Road, the main entrance to the housing has been barricaded.
Rapid test
Parts of four housing complexes in New Town were declared as micro containment zones by the North-24 Parganas district administration on Tuesday.
A flat each in Uniworld, Akanksha Cooperative Housing Society, Sukhobrishti Housing Complex and a portion of Ruchira Heights feature in the list.
On Tuesday, the New Town Kolkata Development Authority organised Covid testing camps at two of these complexes for the residents.
One of the camps was organised at the Ruchira Heights Complex. Priyadar-shini Dutta, a resident of the complex who got tested at the camp, said her report came out negative. “My rapid antigen test came out negative, but I have also booked an RT-PCR to be sure,” said Dutta, a techie.