Coronavirus Pune: PMC to seal society if more than five COVID-19 patients found

Pune: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has now decided that it will seal a particular society or area if more than five COVID-19 positive patients are found there. This move comes after the recent decision of PMC to review the containment zones in the city every Friday.

PMC Commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad announced the new decision of sealing of any society or area. Earlier the containment zones were reviewed after 15 days, but after relaxations from lockdown were given and implemented the non-containment zones also started reporting a high number of COVID cases.

Moreover, citizens were confused over the criteria of PMC to designate a particular area or society as a containment zone. Many rumours also spread if some patients were found in a particular society or area. To lay these concerns to rest, PMC has now declared that it will seal the society or area only if more than five patients are found there.

At the start of the lockdown, over 90 per cent of the city was declared as containment zones. Later when the unlocking phase began, Municipal Commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad reduced the containment zone area to only 9 per cent comprising mostly densely populated areas and slums. Citizen movement for only essential purposes was allowed which kept the number of positive cases down to 15 to 20 per cent in the non-containment zones. Further relaxations in lockdown were given and the number of positive cases outside containment zones started increasing. Now more than 60 per cent of cases are now found outside the known containment zones. This had prompted the PMC to take review of containment zones at a shorter interval of eight days.

Gaikwad said, "The number of positive cases will increase in future. If we have to face this situation, then we have to frequently assess the containment zones. Immediate preventive actions should be taken in the areas or societies where patients are found. Hence we have decided to seal those areas or societies where more than five patients are found."