How Bengaluru is containing the spread of the coronavirus

Bengaluru, Apr 20: There would be a limited number of relaxations which would be allowed in some parts of Bengaluru post-April 20 lockdown announced by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

To take control of the situation, the Karnataka government has identified several containment zones in a bid to curb the spread of the pandemic.

Karnataka has witnessed over 359 cases according to the data provided by the health ministry. Bengaluru has reported 89 of which 44 have been discharged. 4 deaths have been reported. In view of the high number of cases being reported from Bengaluru, the authorities had identified several hotspots and sealed them off.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister of Karnataka, B S Yediyurappa has said that the lockdown relaxations will not be lifted across the state until the midnight of April 21.

What is a containment zone:

A containment zone is a specific geographical area where positive cases of COVID-19 are found. Strict movement restrictions are in place to prevent the further spread of the virus.

These zones are made to map the local transmission and prevent the spread of the virus.
Under this some lanes or neighbourhoods as declared as containment zones even if it has one case.

The MHA in its advisory said that the relaxations post-April 20, will however not apply to the containment zones.

According to a circular from BBMP, containment areas in Bengaluru are divided into three zones which are A, AP and CL.

"A"Containment Zone limits will be 100 Metres radius around the COVID-19 POsitive case premise.

"AP" Containment Zone limits will be the entire Apartment block/building.

"CL" Containment Zone limits will be as defined in the Map Annexed.

Following are lists of directions of the activities in the containment zones have given by BBMP:

Special Health Needs:

• Health Authorities shall identify and list persons requiring special needs
  (Pregnancies, Cardiac Disease and other serious ailments) in Containment Zone with the help of Resident Welfare Association for the building/ area placed under Containment Zone.

Perimeter Control

• Police Authorities will have to cordon off all entrances and not entail any person
  coming out of Containment Zone for any purpose.
• There will be only one entry and exit for each Containment Zone. No Private Vehicle would be allowed inside or outside the Containment Zone.
• Police Authority to ensure that there is complete sealing of the Area.
• Police to undertake complete curfew management and allow essential services and medical emergencies. Police Authorities can use Drone and other technologies in Containment Zone for total lockdown.
• There shall be restriction on the movement of persons even inside the Containment Zone.

Surveillance and Preventive

• Health Authorities shall immediately start Surveillance and Preventive activities and establish Health Outpost with necessary field staff for health screening along with intensive Information, Education & Communication campaign.
• Contact Tracing & Tracking as per protocol and immediate shifting of High Risk
  Contacts to institutions and subjecting Low Risk Contacts to Home Quarantine is to be done. (Low Risk to be moved to Institutions based on the area in which they are residing like slums).
• Testing of Swab Samples of High & Low Risk Contacts.
• Health profiling of entire population to find Influenza like Symptoms and Severe Acute Respiratory Illness and subject them to necessary treatment.
• Shifting of Secondary Contacts (Low Risk Contacts) from Home to Institutional
  Quarantine (Hotels) in case of slums identified in CL- 2 & 3.

Solid Waste Management:

• Solid Waste Management Authorities to ensure daily Waste management that is
  inclusive of Bio-Medical Waste Management and ensure spraying of disinfectant in the Containment Zone.
• Power Sprayers, Drone Sprays and Jetting Machines etc. shall be deployed
  extensively in the Containment Zones for effective and sustained sanitization of the area.

Essentials:

In view of restriction of movement of persons residing in the Containment Zone both inside as well as outside the Containment Zone, it is imperative to ensure that the essential commodities are made available at their door step.

• BBMP to ensure provision of drinking water in case of shortage by coordinating with BWSSB.
• To ensure house to house provisioning of essential supplies and services.
• Food Packets and Ration provisioning for the needy in the Zone.
• Provision of Ration by Fair Price Shops at door step of the card holder.
• Provision of daily necessities like Milk, Newspaper, Vegetables, Groceries, Bread
• Products, Meat etc. is to be planned in a manner which takes into account time of requirement of such commodities and if an area/ cluster is large it can be further subdivided for the purpose of supplying essentials.

Buffer Zone Management:

• Intensive Buffer Zone will be 1 km radius wherein house to house screening will be done by health authorities. Health authorities will conduct active surveillance and social distancing measures in the Buffer Zone.
• Incident Commander of the Containment Zone will be responsible for management of the Buffer Zone as well.
• Social Distancing measures in area around Containment Zone in the buffer zone must be strictly enforced by Police and no public function / gathering is to be allowed in the buffer zone and use of masks to be enforced.
• Surveillance by Health Team to find Influenza-like Illness and Severe Acute Respiratory Illness and managing the same through Fever Clinic or Isolation depending on the case.
• The BBMP circular also has stated that non-reporting of new COVID case within last 28days of the positive case of the containment zone and less than 10 contacts remaining in home quarantine in containment zone.

Crisis Management Team

• Incident Commander - Crisis Management Team: He will be responsible for overall management of the Containment Zone and Buffer Zone.
• Incident Command Centre would be the Ward Office of BBMP.
• Logistic Support to Incident Commander shall be provided by BBMP.
• Joint Commissioner, Zone shall ensure that all necessary support from engineering, solid waste management, health and revenue teams of BBMP is provided to the Incident Commander.

Read the entire document on containment here: