Bengal chief secretary Rajiva Sinha on Saturday unveiled a detailed Covid-19 containment plan for sensitive areas, including parts of Calcutta, Howrah, North 24-Parganas and Hooghly, to thwart the possibility of community spread.

“The containment plan is being implemented strongly in some parts of Calcutta, Howrah, North 24-Parganas and Hooghly.… The plan will continue (to be in place) till the 14th day of the last corona-positive case reported from the area,” Sinha told a news conference.

He said micro-planning was the most important facet of the containment measures. The state administration, Sinha said, will strongly implement the following measures to make containment more effective:

• Identification of the lanes/roads/premises/slums from where positive case are reported
• Micro-planning for a particular area — not an entire ward — in and around the place where a positive case is reported
• Barricading of the micro-planning area or containment zone
• Ensuing home delivery of essential items
• Thermal/health screening of each resident living in the zone
• Rapid tests in these zones as and when kits are available
• Teams comprising representatives from the civil administration, civic authorities and police to monitor each zone
• Social distancing to be implemented and unnecessary movement will be restricted
• A senior officer to be engaged for every ward with a containment zone
• A civic official will be put in charge of monitoring 200 to 400 houses in a containment zone.

A senior official said: “This sends out a message to the common people as well as the administration about what they are expected to do. This clarity will greatly help the administration.”

The chief secretary made it clear that while implementing the steps, the government would ensure the supply of essentials to the doorsteps of the residents.

“The containment plan is robust, but the government cannot afford a panic reaction and that’s why he stressed that essentials will be supplied to doorsteps,” a source said.

Sources in the administration said that before the chief secretary announced the detailed containment plan, the local authorities had already started the groundwork since morning.

Almost all the containment zones in Calcutta, Howrah, North 24-Parganas, Hooghly, East Midnapore and West Burdwan have been barricaded since Friday evening, soon after the chief minister announced that the lockdown would be implemented more strictly in areas where Covid-19 cases have been reported.

“Home delivery of essential items has already started in parts of Howrah and North 24-Parganas. In case of Calcutta, the home delivery of essentials is expected to begin on Monday,” a source said.

In areas where home delivery is yet to start, police have been deployed in large numbers in markets, which have been decongested by shifting some shops and vendors to nearby areas to ensure that social distancing is maintained.

Intensive police patrolling is being conducted in the containment zones to ensure that nobody steps out of their homes unnecessarily.

“We barricaded the containment zones in the district last night. From this morning, the police have been preventing unnecessary movements. We will soon start home delivery of essentials. Then we will see to it that none steps out of home unless there is an emergency,” a district magistrate said.

The health department has also prepared a detailed plan to contain the spread of the virus. It will deploy health workers to enhance surveillance for fever.

“All such cases should be referred to the fever clinics of designated hospitals and suspected cases will be sent to designated centres for collection of samples,” a source said. All symptomatic contacts of a positive patient will be taken to government isolation centres.

“Primary contacts of the patient who don’t develop symptoms will be sent to government quarantine centres and secondary contacts without symptoms will remain in home quarantine,” a source said.