COVID-19: 63 more areas added to list of containment zones in West Bengal

The government has recently clubbed containment zones and the buffer zones around them to constitute a ‘broad-based’ containment zone.

The West Bengal government has added 63 areas to the list of ‘broad-based’ containment zones in the state, increasing the count to 739, amid the strict lockdown clamped in all such places to stem the spread of the coronavirus disease, a senior official said on Sunday. The number of such zones in Kolkata has increased to 32 from 24, with the metropolis continuing to record the maximum number of COVID-19 cases in the state every day, he said.

The number of active cases in Kolkata stood at 5,155 as on Saturday. The government has recently clubbed containment zones and the buffer zones around them to constitute a ‘broad-based’ containment zone.

Currently, North 24 Parganas district has the highest number of containment zones at 113 with the addition of 18 more areas, while South 24 Parganas has 67, up by 12, according to the state government’s website ‘Egiye Bangla’. No new area was added to the list of containment zones in Howrah and the number of such areas in the district stood at 85.

Eleven new zones each were added to Nadia and Purba Burdwan, taking the number of such areas to 65 and 82 respectively. West Bengal had on Saturday witnessed the highest single-day spike of 2,198 COVID-19 cases, taking the state’s tally to 40,209. Twenty-seven more people died of the disease, taking the state’s total fatalities to 1,076.