A road in Vadodara is being painted with message urging people to stay home.

The Vadodara administration on Saturday removed the Tandalja area from the list of red containment zones, easing movement in the area that has been put under cluster quarantine since April 8 after a doctor attached to a trust-run hospital in the locality tested positive for COVID-19.

The area, which has a population of over 7000, was moved to orange zone as no new case was reported from the locality since the quarantine period started.

“The guidelines of the lockdown for the orange zone will still be applicable but it will not be as stringent as those for a red zone area. The decision has been taken in view of the fact that the area did not report a single positive case since it was quarantined. Even the samples collected from the area returned negative. Similar decisions have been taken regarding red zones in cities like Ahmedabad and Surat where curfew was also imposed simultaneously,” Official on Special Duty Vinod Rao said.

He said that while the positive cases in Vadodara have been rising steadily, the recovery of 58 patients is a positive sign.

Meanwhile, the health department has also collected samples of 16 close contacts of the employee of IOCL who tested positive on Friday. The district also conducted more rapid antibody tests on Saturday with a total of 78 samples, all of which have given negative results.

District Health Officer Dr Uday Tilavat said that 15 medical teams have been fanned out to containment areas in Padra, Dabhoi, Karjan and Vadodara, where positive cases have been detected.

“A population of over 9,000 persons will be checked in a door-to-door survey to contain any further spread of the virus,” said Tilavat.