All about containment zones
Blog: NASSCOM Official Blog
As India prepares for a staggered exit from the lockdown, The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), on 15th March 2020, issued an order listing the activities that will be permitted to operate from 20th March 2020.
The MHA order, among other things, permits operation of commercial and private establishments that deal with
1. IT and IT enabled services with upto 50% strength.
2. Data and call Centers for government activities.
3. Ecommerce.
However, the activities exempted under this guideline will not be permitted in the containment zones.
The relevant part of the MHA order is reproduced below.
“ ‘Hotspots’ or areas of large Covid-19 outbreaks, or clusters with significant spread of the virus, will be determined as per the guidelines issued by the health ministry. In these hotspots, containment zones will be demarcated by States/ UTs/ District administrations as per the guidelines. In these containment zones, the activities exempted under the new guidelines will not be permitted. There shall be strict perimeter control in the area of the containment zones to ensure there is no unchecked inward/outward movement of population from these zones except for maintaining essential services”.
What is a containment zone?
As per Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, “The containment zone will be decided by the Rapid response teams based on the extent of cases/contacts listed and mapped by them. However, if contact listing/ mapping is taking time (>12-24 hours), then on arbitrary basis demarcate an area of 3 Kms radius around the epicenter (the residence of the positive case).
This area of 3 km radius will be the containment zone. If required, based on the mapping of contacts and cases, the containment zone will be refined. A buffer zone of an additional 5 Kms radius (7 Kms in rural areas)/administrative boundary of including neighboring districts/per-urban zone shall also be identified, as detailed in the cluster containment plan”
More details on this can be found here https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/Containmentplan02042020.pdf
Who publishes the list of containment zone?
The State Governments and the relevant district administration have been publishing list of hotspots regularly.
What are the restrictions imposed in a containment zone?
There is a complete lockdown in the containment zone. No residents, except essential workers, are allowed to go in or out of the zone.
The authorities conduct a door-to-door screening for Covid-19 symptoms and sanitise each household in the zone. The essential commodities are supplied at the doorstep by the government.
More details on the definition of containment zone is below.
The containment zone will be defined based on:
(i) The index case / cluster, which will be the designated epicenter
(ii) The listing and mapping of contacts.
(iii) Geographical distribution of cases and contacts around the epicenter.
(iv) Administrative boundaries within urban cities /town/ rural area.
The RRT will do listing of cases, contacts and their mapping. This will help in deciding the perimeter for action. The decision of the geographic limit and extent of perimeter control will be that of the State Government. However, likely scenarios and possible characteristics of the containment and buffer zone are given in Table-1.
Table 1: Scenarios for determining containment and buffer zones
S. No Scenario Containment zone characteristics
1. A small cluster in closed environment such as residential schools, military barracks, hostels or a hospital. Containment zone will be determined by the mapping of the persons in such institution including cases and contacts.
A buffer zone of additional 5 Km radius*will be identified.
2. Single cluster in a residential colony Administrative boundary of the residential colony and a buffer zone of additional 5 Km radius.*
3. Multiple clusters in communities (residential colony, schools, offices, hospitals etc.) with in an administrative jurisdiction Administrative boundary of the urban district and a buffer zone of neighboring urban districts.
4. Multiple clusters spatially separated in different parts administrative districts of a city Administrative boundary of city/ town and congruent population in the periurban areas as the buffer zone.**
5. Cluster in a rural setting 3 Km radius of containment zone and additional 7 Kms radius of buffer zone
. * The perimeter of the containment zone will be determined by the continuous real time risk assessment.
** The decision to follow a containment protocol will be based on the risk assessment and feasibility of perimeter control.
Read more : https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/Containmentplan02042020.pdf
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