Pune Municipal Corporation seals 34-square km area under containment plan

Pune: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has sealed a 34 square km area of the city including 27-sq km of Maharishi Nagar to Naidu hospital (RTO office) areas and seven sq km of Kondhwa area. It will screen every person in these areas within three days.

The civic body has already surveyed contact tracing in the city through medical check-ups in areas, where PMC has found positive patients. 

Under the survey, over seven lakh people have been screened.

In a mapping, PMC has found certain areas where infections are increasing rapidly. Therefore, it has sealed those parts to screen every individual and collect a sample of suspects and isolate them.

Shekhar Gaikwad, the municipal commissioner, informed Sakal Times, “We sealed those parts as per COVID-19 positive patient numbers. We have found that the ratio of infected people has increased in these areas. So we sealed the areas. We considered the one-kilometre core area of positive patients and a three-kilometre buffer area of patients. We have identified areas where we found maximum positive patients.”

Giving out more details, Gaikwad added, “Now, we have started to visit each household within the sealed areas and are conducting medical check-ups. If we find any symptoms, we will admit patients in PMC’s isolation wards and collect samples (swab) and test them. We will discharge the person if they test negative. 

“We have prepared 1,000 isolation beds in different areas such as college hostels, sports complexes and PMC’s hospitals.” 

On Monday, indicating the gravity of the spread of COVID-19 in the city, the PMC had decided to seal areas from Maharshi Nagar (Gultekdi) to Naidu Hospital (RTO office) and Kondhwa area till further orders. The decision was implemented from Monday midnight. Gaikwad had given a letter to the police department to seal these entire areas until further orders. 

Maharashtra has emerged as one of the worst-affected regions in the country with cases crossing the 1,000-mark. The cases in India are nearing the 5,000 marks with 124 deaths reported.

Police impose new rules in sealed areas

• Vegetables and fruits vendors, milk stores and grocery shops will remain open only between 10 am and 12 noon in the sealed areas of the city. If these places are seen crowded, the police will close them and send people home
• All banks will remain closed and only ATMs will be open
• All shops have to observe social distancing among customers. They should use masks, gloves and hand sanitisers
• The police have also cancelled all passes given to people to use their vehicles
• If anybody is living in the sealed areas and their workplace is located anywhere else, the company should make arrangements for their stay near or in the office