Lockdown 5.0: Revised list containment zones in Visakhapatnam

The Ministry of Home Affairs, on Saturday, announced that lockdown 5.0 will be restricted only to containment zones while the remaining areas will be reopened in a phased manner across the country. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 cases tally in Visakhapatnam rose to 113 with four new cases being reported, as on Sunday evening. Demarcating areas of coronavirus incidence as containment zones, the authorities have been imposing restrictions on the activity and movement in the region. On the other hand, the officials are denotifying certain areas as a containment zone, if they haven’t reported even single COVID-19 case for 28 days, from the detection of the last positive case. Currently, 27 containment zones have been identified in Visakhapatnam district.

The revised list of containment zones in Visakhapatnam is as follows:

Railway New Colony (Dormant), Chintalapalem (Dormant), Madhavadhara (Dormant), Dandu Bazaar (Very Active), Chengalarao Peta (Dormant), Gopalapatnam (Dormant), Marripalem (Dormant), Srinagar (Dormant), KRM Colony (Dormant), Pithapuram Colony (Dormant), Relli Veedhi (Very Active), Jalaripeta (One Town) (Active), Simhadripuram (Dormant), Vadlapudi (Gajuwaka) (Dormant), Sai Madhav Nagar (Naiduthota) (Dormant), Appannapalem (Vepagunta), Priyadarshini Colony (Gajuwaka) (Dormant), Jagannadhapuram (Akkayyapalem) (Dormant), SVP Nagar (Kobbarithota) (Dormant), Nelamma Vepachettu (MGM) (Active), Bailapudi (Cheedikada) (Dormant), Gnanapuram (Active), Gavara Veedhi (Narsipatnam) (Dormant), Chittiboyinapalem (Active), Gayatri Nagar (PM Palem) (Very Active), Chinnodupalem (Very Active), and Duggapuvanipalem (Very Active).

The aforementioned categories indicate the status of the demarcated areas. Explaining further, Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) Chief Medical Officer (Health), Dr KLSG Sastry mentioned that if a case has been reported in an area in the past six days, then the cluster will be categorised under very active. If a COVID-19 case hasn’t been reported in a containment zone/cluster in the past 6-14 days, it comes under the active category. Likewise, if a containment cluster doesn’t register a coronavirus case in the past 14 days, the zone will be placed under the dormant category, he added.

As the lockdown is limited to containment zones, the restrictions will remain in force in those areas until 30 June 2020. In the containment zones, only essential activities shall be permitted. There shall be strict perimeter control to ensure that there is no movement of people in or out of these zones. Individuals will be allowed to move only for medical emergencies and for maintaining the supply of essential goods and services. Intensive contact tracing, house-to-house surveillance, and other clinical interventions, as required will be carried out by the authorities in these containment zones. States and Union Territories (UTs) will also identify Buffer Zones outside the containment zones, where new cases are more likely to occur. Within the buffer zones, restrictions, as considered necessary, will be put in place by the District authorities. The states and Union Territories, based on their assessment of the situation, or impose such restrictions in areas outside the containment zones if deemed necessary.