Four wards have no micro-containment zones in Pune city

Out of the 15 wards in the city, four have zero micron-containment zones, as per the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) health department. As of Thursday, the four wards that have zero micro-containment zones include Warje-Karvenagar, Kothrud-Bawdhan, Dhole Patil road and Yerawada-Kalas-Dhanori.

The city has a total of 56 micro-containment zones, out of which 12 are buildings, 28 are societies and 16 others. The highest zones are present in Dhankawadi- Sahakarnagar with 15 zones and at the second spot, Bibwewadi has 11 zones.

Also, Bhawani peth and Ahmednagar road-Wadgaonsheri wards have only one micro containment zone, a society and a building while Aundh-Baner and Kondhwa-Yewlewadi both have two zones each.

Micron-containment zones are essential to curb the spread of the virus as restricts the movement of the people living in the same building, society or chawl where more than five active Covid-19 cases are present.

The city has seen a drastic fall in the number of cases resulting in the fall of positivity rate as well which was 20.99% between April 29 and May 5 and has now fallen to 7.86% between May 20 May and May 26.

Sachin Tamkhade, Kothrud-Bawdhan ward officer, said, “The number of cases has been falling drastically in the ward. Due to early detection, early treatment and early isolation we could break the chain of infection. We also ramped up vaccination and we have vaccinated about 70,000 people in our ward at the five vaccination centres.”

“In the second wave we saw that most of the societies were reporting a maximum number of cases and so to control it whenever we found more than five active cases in any society, we declared it a micro containment zone and spoke to the chairperson to ensure that there is no unnecessary movement in the society. We also screened the neighbouring homes and anyone symptomatic was tested at the PMC centre,” he said.