Containment zones smaller

Sealing-off is now restricted to houses; it doesn’t extend to entire wards and neighbourhoods. BBMP officials explain the rationale

The BBMP is no longer declaring an entire municipal ward as a containment zone.

Instead, the public health authorities only seal a house or apartment where a Covid-19-positive patient is found. The decision comes despite a spike in the number of patients since the lockdown ended.

B H Anil Kumar, BBMP commissioner, says the understanding of containment zones has evolved over the past couple of months.

In early April, containment zones extended to 5 km from the house where a positive case was found. An intensive buffer zone of 1 km was marked out for house-to-house screening. This reduced to 1 km, 200 m and 100 m over time.

In some areas such as Shivajinagar, where more clusters were found, the containment area was extended.

“The radius still remains 100 metres, but some things are determined on the area and type of residence,” he says.

In the wake of a positive case in an apartment block, instead of containing the entire block, the particular floor and the floors above and below are cordoned off.

In the case of a standalone house segregated with walls or fencing, the house alone is contained. However, in the case of a slum or a congested area, where the danger of spread is greater, a radius of 100 metres is marked as a containment zone.

Dr M K Sudarshan, chairman, Karnataka Covid-19 technical advisory committee, says a better understanding of the virus is the reason the containment zones have shrunk.

“The fear factor was very real and we wanted to be as cautious as possible,” he says, explaining why this method could not have been implemented earlier. Now individual houses are closed for 14 days, which marks the incubation period, and another 14 days are for self-quarantine.

The municipal authorities will simply paste a notice on the house saying it is an affected zone. “I don’t think that there is a social stigma attached to this virus, so I don’t think this marking is going to lead to ostracisation,” Anil Kumar says.

Dr Prashant N Srinivas, assistant director (research), Institute of Public Health, observes the uniform lockdown restrictions affected groups differently, with those like migrants and trans people facing greater difficulty.

The current plan is more decentralised and reduces the number of people who are quarantined, focusing on the ones who are affected and at risk, he says.

However, he suggests neighbourhood-level containment zones might
be better than residence-only. “A visible form of containment could lead to unnecessary power dynamics,” he says.

Overreaction?

Anil Kumar and Sudarshan say the total lockdown was no overreaction, and the government simply responded to the need of the hour.

“It is a completely new virus and disease. It was better to be overly cautious. But, now we know better,” says Anil Kumar.

Dr Prashant says the earlier lockdown was based on the assumption that the disease can be tackled by strict measures over a short period.

“This is going to be a long-drawn process and people at the top are realising this now, and hence they are changing tactics,” he says.

In his view, the lockdown should have been used to improve preparedness not just in cities, but also at the taluk level.

Fewer cases?

Reducing the size of containment zones will help better track and therefore reduce cases, says Dr Sudarshan.

“Smaller containment zones also mean that they will be able to restrict the right people from moving around. This means that someone who is not affected would not be barred from stepping out, making this a more lockdown-compliant method,” Dr Sudarshan says.

In smaller containment zones, controlling the spread becomes a matter of self-regulation, says Anil Kumar. However, congested areas would need to be monitored more closely.

Current containment policy

No containment at ward and neighbourhood level.

Individual houses: 100 m containment, 14 days quarantine.

Apartments: Three floors (upper, lower and patient’s house level).