Containment zones not demarcated, Ghaziabad admin says all guidelines being followed

Ghaziabad: With the latest guidelines from the state government on the creation of containment zones in place, administration officials in Ghaziabad said that they have geared up to clearly demarcate such areas

Ghaziabad: With the latest guidelines from the state government on the creation of containment zones in place, administration officials in Ghaziabad said that they have geared up to clearly demarcate such areas. However, the ground level situation depicts a different picture with official figures indicating that the district had 169 containment zones till April 11 with 519 Covid-19 cases.

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The areas having positive cases are defined as containment zones where there is a restriction on movement of people, except in case of essential services and emergency situations. The containment zones are created to restrict the spread of infection.

However, when asked about the restriction on movement of people in and out of containment zones, the district officials said that the “guidelines are being followed”, but declined to clarify further.

“We are creating and clearly demarcating the boundaries of containment zones as per guidelines issued by the government. Testing, surveillance and other activities are also being taken up as per protocol in order to check the spread of infection,” said Ajay Shankar Pandey, district magistrate of Ghaziabad.

On Monday, an HT team visited the Carte residential segment having 83 Covid-19 cases (on April 8) and found that some of the houses on the official list of containment zones in Shastri Nagar and Chiranjeev Vihar localities had no demarcation and even no posters were put up at the houses indicating that they have a Covid patient. Notably, on April 8, the district had a total of 532 active cases, as per the data from the Ghaziabad health department.

“There is no demarcation in containment zones and there is also no restriction on movement of people. In some cases, health department teams come and put up a red mark at such houses. There are people in my ward who have contracted infection and they often call us to get sanitization done. Also, there is hardly any restriction on movement of patients,” said Rajendra Tyagi, a councillor from Raj Nagar ward 84 and a resident of Chiranjeev Vihar.

Till last year, the administration was securing the containment zones by placing at entry/exit points wooden poles or tapes, and the deployment of police and home guards was also ensured.

Councillor Ajay Sharma from ward 67 of Sanjay Nagar said that the perimeter of the containment zones is not secured or demarcated in his ward. “My ward has a few Covid-19 cases, but I have not seen any demarcation of the containment zone that is usually done by putting up wooden poles or tapes,” Sharma said.

When asked, Shailendra Kumar Singh, additional district magistrate (city), said that in some cases when tapes are put up to define perimeter of containment zones, people often damage them. “We are putting up stickers at houses having Covid cases and regular sanitisation is also taken up. Other guidelines are also getting followed,” said Singh, who is also the nodal officer for containment zones.

Experts said that the basic idea of creating a containment zone is to restrict movement. “If there is no restriction in and out of a containment zone, the spread of infection cannot be checked. So, it has to be fully demarcated and movement restricted. But such instances are generally not visible this year,” said Dr Ashish Agarwal, president of Indian Medical Association (Ghaziabad).

On April 3, UP chief secretary RK Tiwari issued an order for surveillance in which areas having one positive case was to be created as a containment zone in a radius of 25 metres (comprising about 20 houses), while areas having more than one case will be in form of a cluster and having a radius of 50 metres (comprising about 60 houses). For the high-rises, the directions said that in case of emergence of one Covid case, the entire floor will be contained while in case of multiple cases, the entire tower will be contained.

In another order on April 11, the UP chief secretary had directed that the supply of essential commodities should be ensured in all containment zones.