Containment zones go up in Chennai, following surge in COVID-19 positive cases – The Hindu

As COVID-19 positive cases are increasing in the city, the Chennai Corporation is simultaneously increasing the number of containment zones. The number now stands at 70.

The civic body, which had discontinued barricading of streets last month, resumed the containment zone strategy in places where the number of positive cases is higher than three on a particular street.

Containment zones, which stood at only 10 in the first week of October, increased to 42 and have now touched 70. Ambattur zone that has 50% of the containment zones still tops with 29 streets. Tondiarpet in north Chennai which had no containment zones when the practice was resumed, at present has 11 streets barricaded as part of COVID-19 prevention measures. The number of positive cases in Tondiarpet zone has been increasing over the past week with more than 500 cases. All other zones have less than five containment zones.

A senior official of the civic body said the zonal officials who have been given the freedom to block streets, are putting up containment zones based on the feedback from local officials to prevent the spread of the virus.

A senior official of the civic body stressed that residents had the wrong notion that the COVID-19 pandemic was over when the Corporation stopped barricading streets, and members of the public discontinued the wearing of masks and following of safety norms. The containment zones are being brought back to keep the pandemic under control, the official said.