At least four Covid-19 cases were reported in the last 14 days from the places that have been earmarked as containment zones, in the Calcutta municipal area, where a strict lockdown would come into effect from 5pm on Thursday, government officials said.
The Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) will update the list every two days. A senior official of the government said a place could be removed from the list only if no fresh Covid-19 case was reported from there in 14 days.
Only essential service workers will be allowed to leave or enter a containment zone, said an official. There is no clear official definition yet of essential services.
CMC ward coordinators and police have been asked to arrange supply of essentials at the barricades marking boundaries of a containment zone.
The zones
The Calcutta municipal area has 25 containment zones. These include housing complexes as well as neighbourhoods with apartment blocks and standalone houses, said a CMC official. Three places each in Alipore and Bhowanipore and two places each in Kasba and Ultadanga have been brought under containment zones. “In most cases, 60 to 100 households are in each zone. A zone comprises a single lane or two to three lanes. There is no reason to think that large parts of Kasba or Alipore will be blocked,” said a CMC official.
In the Bidhannagar municipal area, at least 28 containment zones have been identified. Twenty-seven of these are in Salt Lake and theother in Kestopur.
Six containment zones have been identified in parts of Bangur and Dakshindari, under South Dum Dum Municipality, 25 in Rajarhat. There is no containment zone in New Town.
The criteria
Several officials said that an area was made a containment zone only if more than four or five cases were reported from there in the last 14 days. “There are still over 1,800 containment/isolation units. These are individual houses or flats that have been sealed. Not more than one case has been detected in those areas, so these are fit to be treated as isolation units,” said the official.
“Containment zones have come up in places where 4 to 5 or more cases were reported from a small area.”
A public health specialist said if multiple cases were reported from a small area, it showed there was a risk of transmission if people from that pocket were allowed to interact freely with people from another area. “It is possible that some people in the immediate neighbourhood of a person testing positive for Covid-19 may interact with him or her. So there is a need to restrict people’s movement,” the specialist said.
Essential supply
Essential supplies like groceries, vegetables and poultry will be delivered at the barricades put up by police to mark the containment zones. Sources in the government said municipal bodies and police at the local level would arrange for the deliveries.
Anindya Routh, the coordinator of CMC’s Borough III, which has eight containment zones, said police would arrange for supply of essential items. Routh and other senior officials of the borough met officers from five police stations — Ultadanga, Maniktala, Phoolbagan, Beleghata and Narkeldanga — on Wednesday to discuss modalities of enforcement of the lockdown in the containment zones.
Firhad Hakim, the chairman of the CMC’s board of administrators, held a video conference with all health officers in charge of the 16 boroughs on Wednesday. Police stations in a borough and health officials will decide the modalities of enforcement in consultation with ward and borough coordinators, officials said.
Krishna Chakraborty, the mayor of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, said the civic body and the police would coordinate with residents in the containment zones and deliver essential items, including medicines, to them.
Essential service staff
At Hakim’s video conference, the health officers were told that people working in essential service sectors should work from home if they live
in containment zones. A health official later said “an exception could be made for doctors and other healthcare workers”.
During the lockdown in April, employees of power utilities, telecom firms, bank, and oil and natural gas sector units and media personnel were treated as providers of emergency service. The health official said sector-specific decisions would be taken at the local level by police and municipal officials.
“Our objective is to ensure people do not leave containment areas. People should work from home. If that is not possible, local officials will decide,” the health official said.
SOME CONTAINMENT ZONES IN NORTH 24-PARGANAS AND HOWRAH
This list is not exhaustive. The complete list is available on the Egiye Bangla website here
North 24-Parganas
⚫ Bangur Avenue, Block – A, Super Market Gali (South Dum Dum Municipality, Ward 29): Lake Town police station
⚫ Adjacent market closure for containment zone Bangur Avenue, Block – A (South Dum Dum Municipality, Ward 29): Lake Town police station
⚫ 5 No. Nehru Colony, Dakshindari (South Dum Dum Municipality, Ward 35): Lake Town police station
⚫ Sastriji Colony, Dakshindari (South Dum Dum Municipality, Ward 35): Lake Town police station
⚫ Adjacent market closure for containment zone Dakshindari Sastriji Colony & Dakshindari Nehru Colony (South Dum Dum Municipality, Ward 35): Lake Town police station
⚫ Samarpally, Kestopur (Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, Ward 25): Baguiati police station
⚫ Block: FD-43, 58/1, 301 & 308, Salt Lake (Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, Ward 33): Bidhannagar South police station
⚫ Block: FE-21, 523 & 516, Salt Lake, (Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, Ward 33): Bidhannagar South police station
⚫ Block: IB-1, 9 & Block: HC-SBI Qtrs, Salt Lake (Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, Ward 34): Bidhannagar South police station
⚫ Block: BE-232 to 249, Salt Lake (Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, Ward 31): Bidhannagar North police station
⚫ Khardaha Notun Bazar along with Khardaha Station Bazar (Khardah Municipality, Ward 13): Khardaha police station
⚫ Sodepur Station Bazar (Panihati Municipality, Ward 14): Khardah police station
⚫ MNK Road (Baranagar Municipality, wards 4, 5, 6, 7, 32): Baranagar police station
⚫ GLT Road (Baranagar Municipality, wards 13, 26, 28): Baranagar police station
⚫ BK Maitra Road (Baranagar Municipality, Ward 33): Baranagar police station
⚫ Deshbandhu Road (Baranagar Municipality, wards 7, 8, 9): Baranagar police station
⚫ Surya Sen Road (Baranagar Municipality, Ward 3): Baranagar police station
⚫ AK Mukherjee Road (Baranagar Municipality, wards 16, 17, 18): Baranagar police station
⚫ Rabindra Nagar, Dunlop (Baranagar Municipality, Ward 14): Baranagar police station
⚫ Nagerbazar to Bhagabati Park Bazar through Jessore Road (South Dum Dum Municipality, wards 22, 23, 25, 27): Dum Dum police station
⚫ Motijheel to Dum Dum Station Bazar through Dum Dum Road (South Dum Dum Municipality, wards 8, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 22): Dum Dum police station
⚫ Mackenzie Road & Sukur Road crossing to Sastitala crossing including Toothbagan, Lootbagan, Faribagan, Anwarbagan (Kamarhati Municipality, wards 2, 6): Belghoria police station
⚫ North Basudebpur Road Texmaco Gate More to Trivasha School More covering Chowdhurypara, Lalkuthi, Paschimpally (Kamarhati Municipality, Ward 29): Belghoria police station
⚫ Ghola Road–Old Nimta Road/Ghola crossing & Belghoria Station Road & Ghola Road crossing covering Ghola Bazar, Notunpally, Mohini Mill Quarter & Asha Kiran Apartment (Kamarhati Municipality, wards 21, 33): Belghoria police station
⚫ Feeder Road Footpath Bazar (Kamarhati Municipality, wards 20, 21): Belghoria police station
HOWRAH
⚫ Purna Chandra Mukherjee Road (HMC, Ward 45): Santragachi police station
⚫ Satya Sadhan Dhar Lane (HMC, Ward 63): Liluah police station
⚫ Palghat Lane (HMC, Ward 57): Belur police station
⚫ Rajan Seth Lane (HMC, Ward 58): Belur police station
⚫ Tripura Roy Lane (HMC, Ward 11): Golabari police station
⚫ Upendra Nath Mitra Lane (HMC, Ward 12): Golabari police station
⚫ Rasik Krishna Banerjee Lane (HMC, Ward 4): Malipanchghora police station
⚫ Krishnaratan Naskar Lane (HMC, Ward 4): Malipanchghora police station
⚫ Nisco Housing Complex (Bally GP): Nischinda police station
⚫ Dharsha Panchanantala (HMC, Ward 47): Jagacha police station
⚫ Charakdanga, GIP colony (HMC, Ward 47): Jagacha police station
⚫ PK Banerjee Road (HMC, Ward 29): Howrah police station
⚫ Hat Lane (HMC, Ward 29): Howrah police station
⚫ Round Tank Lane (HMC, Ward 29): Howrah police station
⚫ MG Road (HMC, Ward 29): Howrah police station
⚫ Telkol Ghat Road (HMC, Ward 29): Howrah police station
⚫ RBC Road (HMC, Ward 29): Howrah police station
⚫ Chintamany Dey Road (HMC, Ward 29): Howrah police station
⚫ SK Para (Domjur GP): Domjur police station
⚫ Sankaridah Ghoshpara (Bergi GP): Domjur police station
⚫ Old Post Office (Banipur 1): Sankrail police station
⚫ Panchanantala Natun Para (Banipur 1): Sankrail police stationHMC: Howrah Municipal CorporationGP: Gram panchayat
Compiled by Monalisa Chaudhuri
