BENGALURU: After guidelines were issued by the Centre and the state government to maintain stricter vigil in containment and buffer zones, health and Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials are now rethinking measures they need to take within Bengaluru and its periphery. Officials have begun assessing areas from where maximum cases are being reported. BBMP Commissioner B H Anil Kumar told TNIE that there are 19 containment zones in Bengaluru, and that they are in the process of seeing what further restrictions can be implemented. 

“Our biggest worry is Padarayanapura, where we are seeing many positive cases. The good news is that the virus spread is contained in these zones. We are now focusing on buffer zones — if cases are reported from the peripheries of containment zones, buffer zones will be extended,” he said. 

Departments are also looking at streets around containment zones, and adding them under buffer zones. Currently, 100 metres around a spot from where a case is reported is sealed off, and the whole area becomes a containment zone. Then, a buffer zone is created around it. Jawaid Akhtar, Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare and Medical Education, added that restrictions in buffer zones are similar to those in orange zones. Aggressive testing and sampling will be done in buffer zones too.