Lucknow: Large containment zones out of bounds for 5 days from Monday

LUCKNOW: All areas coming under four police stations — Indiranagar, Aashiana, Sarojininagar and Ghazipur — will be turned into large containment zones for five days beginning Monday. The restrictions in these areas will come into effect at 5am on Monday and continue till 10pm Friday (July 24). The decision has been taken in the wake of a spike in Covid cases in the city.
The number of small containment zones created after a patient was reported from a locality is high in these four areas in comparison to other parts of the city, making it difficult for the authorities to restrict public movement.

As a result, it was decided to convert the entire police station area into a containment zone encompassing all the small zones, making enforcement of Covid-19 regulations easier, said district magistrate Abhishek Prakash in the guidelines issued on Sunday.
According to the guidelines, haats, markets, mandis and other commercial units in the large containment zones will remain closed till Friday. However, those in essential services such as grocery, dairy, vegetable, fruits, health and fuel will remain open, besides places of worship with safety protocol and guidelines issued specifically for them earlier.
Besides, media services, banks and industrial units including IT and IT enabled services will operate. In addition, construction of large scale projects, expressway, bridges, roads, government buildings and private construction will continue as before. However, all the work places will have to follow infection control safety protocols.
Further, private units allowed to work will have to set up Covid-19 help desk as prescribed by the district administration in their premises.
The private units can call maximum upto 50% of the workforce and have been advised to encourage employees to work from home.
International and domestic travelers will face no restriction in reaching their homes. Railway passengers will be provided bus service from the stations for the large containment zones.
The traffic on state and national highways in these zones will be allowed.
UPSRTC buses and eateries on highways will be allowed to operate. Residents of these area will allowed to venture out within the zones or outside only in case of emergency or to buy essentials.
Similarly, people from other parts of the city outside the containment zones can travel into these areas only for emergencies like health.
But restrictions around the houses and offices of Covid patients in these areas will continue without any relaxation.
“We have advised offices in other parts of the area to adjust the employee roster of workers from containment zones. Work from home module should be applied to maximum possibility for both private and public sector,” divisional commissioner Mukesh Meshram told TOI. Violators will be booked as per the law.