Covid-19: 12 zones shed tag, 8 new areas on containment list in Kolkata – Times of India

KOLKATA: The city has succeeded in shedding a few more containment zones, bringing down the total number of high-risk areas from 28 to 24. The stricter enforcement of lockdown norms re-imposed since Thursday will also now include the outskirts of the city — the entire Madhyamgram and Barasat areas.
Sources, however, on Thursday maintained that inclusion of some new areas in the list after Sunday could not be ruled out. “We are awaiting a signal from the state health department for clamping stricter lockdown in areas where there has been a spurt in Covid cases. First, we have to bring them under containment zones and then enforce the lockdown measures,” said a KMC official.

In all, about 12 zones managed to shed their containment tag. Similarly, at least eight new areas were added to the list. Out of the 24 zones, as many as 16 are either standalone buildings or housing complexes and only two are slums. There are six mixed zones.
Among some of the biggest zones that have managed to come out of strict lockdown are the middle-class neighbourhood of Bijoygarh, the mixed zones of GS Bose Road and Adhar Chandra Das Road, the upscale Belvedere Road and the slum of Jawaharlal Dutta Lane.
Interestingly, these changes were not only restricted to different clusters within the same area, but also spread out geographically across the city. At Bhowanipore, for example, one address in Chakrabria North managed to come out of the containment list, the one in Chakraberia South continued to languish on the list. Chakraberia though has also added another address to the city containment list. The same pattern was visible on Sarat Bose Road too.
Among the new areas that will keep KMC worried are Sikdarpara Street at Posta, Ballygunge and Dover Lane. Police are also worried over Paharpur in Garden Reach, the first containment zone in the densely populated Port area. Behala, another affected zone, has neither added or shed any of the two containment zones.
At Madhyamgram and Barasat, all markets and standalone shops remained closed from 1pm on Thursday. “This restriction will be continued for two weeks. All the shops and markets can remain open from 6am to 1 pm,”said Rathin Ghosh, the chairman of Madhyamgram municipality.