Containment zone can be a house or apartment

Hyderabad: Now the radius of containment zones for Covid-19 patients is fast shrinking in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Once extended to an area of around 3 km radius, the containment zones where strict enforcement of lockdown restrictions is now being limited to a single house, in case the standalone residence or an entire apartment includes the patient’s flat. The Union Health ministry, as well as the ICMR (Indian Council for Medical Research), has left it to the states to define the containment zones, where coronavirus affected persons are located. There is also some ambiguity over the extent of area of a containment zone where the lockdowns will have to be strictly followed. As a result, both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have drastically reduced the zone’s extent.

In the limits of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), which accounts for about 600 active cases and 19 containment zones, medical officials have redrawn the lockdown areas till 30 June–a single house, in case of standalone residential areas, or a single apartment which includes the flat of the patient. People from the adjacent buildings or houses are allowed do move without restrictions.

“The redefinition of containment zones is done keeping in mind two requirements—one, not to cause any inconvenience to people unaffected by Covid, and second to proper utilisation of medical and health and police officials to monitor virus patients,” a senior public health official in the GHMC who looks after the containment zones in the city told this newspaper on the condition of anonymity.

There is also some criticism from a section of the public which wants stricter implementation of lockdown. They feel that severely shrunken containment zones in the long run might prove ineffective in curbing the spread of the virus.

However, the public need not be panicky over the modified containment zones or the number of tests which are being done as per the guidelines of IMCR, said Telangana Public Health Director Srinivasa Rao.