No lockdown or night curfew for now, says Mumbai civic chief

Amid the recent surge in Covid-19 cases and consequent tightening of norms to contain the spread in Mumbai, municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal on Tuesday said no new lockdown measures will be announced in Mumbai and also no night curfew, as of now.

Amid the recent surge in Covid-19 cases and consequent tightening of norms to contain the spread in Mumbai, municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal on Tuesday said no new lockdown measures will be announced in Mumbai and also no night curfew, as of now.

(Satish Bate/HT Photo)

This was after Chahal’s review meeting with Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday evening. Chahal told HT: “No new lockdown measures are introduced in Mumbai. There are no micro containment zones in Mumbai.”

Also, in a significant development, the civic body has also allowed vaccination centres in the city to work 24x7 and even on Sundays.

Meanwhile, there has been a substantial increase in the number of sealed buildings in the city, in view of the spike in infections since the first week of February. According to its protocol, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been sealing buildings with more than five cases and floors of buildings that house a single case. A senior civic official said, “BMC has already reduced containment zones to prevent inconvenience to the people. It is sealing one entire building, or just a single floor of a building on the basis of our protocol.” As of March 8, Mumbai has 21 containment zones, and 214 sealed buildings. In the past week, this figure has substantially increased. On February 28, Mumbai had 12 containment zones, and 137 sealed buildings. According to BMC’s press note of February 18, however, there are 57 containment zones and 258 sealed buildings in the city.

On Monday, Thackeray had asked district and city administrations to earmark micro containment zones. He also directed that areas that are most affected and have a high positivity rate should increase tracing to 30 people per infection.

A containment zone is an earmarked area that has a high Covid-19 positivity rate or presence of large number of cases. The number of cases needed to earmark an area as containment zone depends on the density of population. In a city like Mumbai, an area can become containment zone if four-five cases are found. An entire building can become a containment zone and hence sealed, preventing movement of people.

A micro containment zone is relatively smaller in area or in places like Mumbai it could just be a floor instead of an entire building. Micro zones are suggested to minimise inconvenience to people and for better management of containment measures as movement can be restricted effectively to check spread of the epidemic.

In Mumbai, containment zones are typically slums or chawls, which do not have a compound or gate to seclude them naturally from the rest of the area. In case of high-rise buildings or gated communities, buildings are sealed.

Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, in-charge of BMC’s public health department, said, “Our containment zone and sealed building policy is as good as micro-containment zoning. In such cases, no one is allowed to enter to exit a sealed building. Essential goods can be left at the gate of the building.” In case of sealed buildings, it is the job of the secretary of the housing society to ensure everyone follows containment rules.

Regarding the CM’s directions of increasing the number of contacts traced per positive patient to 30, Kakani said, “We are in fact doing more and exploring other options in contact tracing as well. When we come across a case, we go back 15 days to see where all the person went, whom he or she met, if he or she attended any function or ceremony. This way it becomes easier to trace the source of the infection.” As per data available on Monday, within 24 hours leading to Sunday evening, BMC traced over 6,000 high-risk contacts.

Presently, BMC traces up to 25 high-risk contacts per Covid-19 patient.

On February 18, at a meeting with top civic officers, including deputy municipal commissioners in charge of the zones in Mumbai and assistant commissioners in charge of wards, Chahal directed the administration to tighten containment and quarantine measures in the city. Following this, the number of sealed buildings and containment zones increased.

Among these measures, were hand stamping of high-risk contacts, so that they can be easily identified should they break home quarantine rules; reverting to the older practice of sealing an entire building if more than five cases are found in them; and increasing the number of contacts traced per patient to 25, from the earlier 15 or 16. BMC also filed police complaints against anyone who broke home quarantine rules, which can result in a jail term up to 6 months or fine, or both.

A senior civic official said, “We still have a larger number of cases from buildings than from slums. Moreover, we are able to seal one building, even in a gated community of say eight or nine buildings. Hence the number of sealed buildings is more than containment zones.”

When a building is sealed, no resident can exit it during the duration of its containment, which is usually 14 days from the time five cases or more are discovered in the building. No visitor can enter the building either. Essential workers and frontline workers who are residents of the building can take permission from the ward officer to report to work every day. Essential commodities can be supplied by relatives or vendors at the gate of the building.

In case a floor is sealed, residents of the remaining floors of the building can exit the building, but no one is allowed to enter the floor. High-risk or close contacts of Covid-19 patients have to be under home quarantine. Other residents of the floor do not have strict restrictions on mobility.

An assistant commissioner who did not wish to be named said, “In case of containment zones, of slums, it is becoming increasingly difficult to manage mobility. It was easier during lockdown. Now with the entire city unlocked, and in slums that have multiple entry exit points, it is not possible to ensure strict quarantine.” BMC institutionally quarantines a large number of high-risk contacts from slums. During the February 18 meeting, Chahal also directed the administration to increase the number of Covid Care Centres (CCC1) by reactivating dormant CCC1s to quarantine high-risk contacts of patients, to at least one centre per ward.

Vishwas Shankarwar, deputy municipal commissioner in charge of north-west Mumbai, said, “We mark lanes that lead out of containment zones, typically slums, and we shut the entry with bamboos or tin sheets. The security aspect of this is managed by the police, who station policemen at entry or exit points. Containment zones are demarcated if we see a large cluster of cases being reported from a single area.”

The BMC has now given blanket permission to all vaccination centres in the city to operate 24X7 and even operate on Sundays, according to Kakani. He said, “It is their call to operate 24X7, depending on resources available. But we have intimated all hospitals to do so.” Presently there are 68 active vaccination centres in the city. Kakani said, “15 more private hospitals are being added to the list of vaccination centres to increase our capacity. They can start the centres from Wednesday itself.”

Meanwhile, a day after announcing lockdown in hotspots, the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has backtracked and said there will be no complete restriction on movement and all facilities as per the state government’s “Mission Begin Again”, will continue as before. Only a few restrictions will be imposed in these containment areas as per government guidelines. The corporation is also making a list of micro containment zones based on guidelines from the state.

(with inputs from Ankita G Menon)