As the Centre brings its guidelines to 'unlock' the lockdown measures, Bengaluru is seemingly in the peril of rising Covid cases and containment zones in the city. Within a day's span, the state capital has witnessed a sudden rise in the number of its containment zones.
According to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) reports, there were 26 containment zones in the city which by June 1, Monday evening, rose to 36. The ten new zones added to the list include Siddapura, Hosahalli, Bommanahalli, HSR Layout, Agaram, Kadugodi, Chokkasandra, Cholradipalya, Jayamahal and Kempegowda Nagar.
Risk doubles in the city
The sudden high rise in the containment zones has triggered panic among the citizens and the officials who are also worried as more relaxations are announced over the public activities on behalf of 'Unlock 1'.
According to BBMP Commissioner BH Anil Kumar, the city is prone to the rising number of Covid positive cases because a majority of these patients are either Maharashtra returnees or their contacts. Accordingly, the chances of people having contracted the virus en route as travellers are high, he added, although the travellers would have tested negative and produced a certificate to prove it before boarding vehicles.
He also explained that some of the wards are repeated in the containment zone list because more areas in the same ward would have been brought under the containment zone.
Meanwhile, contact tracing is difficult in Bengaluru due to the overcrowded public spaces that add to fears of the virus spreading within the community. "The challenge is how to do contact tracing immediately and putting them in quarantine," said the BBMP Commissioner.
List of containment zones in Bengaluru:
28 new Covid cases registered
As per the BBMP war room bulletin, the newly added 10 containment zones in the city will continue to remain as active containment zones till June 27 while areas that were added earlier, as in the case of HBR Layout, relaxations are likely to come into effect as early as June 6.
The bulletin also mentioned that strict containment measures have been extended in wards like SK Garden, Padarayanapura, Hongasandra, Shivajinagar, Malleswaram, Mangamanapalya and Hoodi where a steep increase in the confirmed cases have been noticed.
The evening bulletin released by the state health department stated that 28 new positive coronavirus cases were registered in Bengaluru alone.
