Chandigarh: Entire colony of 60,000 sealed, none can go; none can enter, order advisor

Vendors donning PPE kits selling essential items from across the barricades to residents of the containment area at Bapu Dham in Chandigarh.

With the number of positive cases of COVID-19 increasing in the Bapu Dham colony with each passing day, the Chandigarh administration on Thursday sealed the entire colony that houses some 60,000 people. So far, 76 cases have been reported from the colony, which has become an access point. Authorities said the area, apart from the marked containment zone in the colony, has been identified as a buffer zone and will be subject to strict perimeter control. Previously, only a part of the colony was marked as a containment area.

UT adviser Manoj Parida said that no one will be allowed to enter or leave the colony, except for government employees, municipal employees and essential service providers, who are on duty. He added that government officials, who reside in the colony, will not be able to leave the area.

Orders issued by Parida stated that the Director of Health Services will guarantee a thorough evaluation and medical evidence of suspected cases in the area.

So far, 62 people from the Bapu Dham colony, who were immediate contacts of patients with COVID-19, have been transferred to a quarantine center in Sector 47 of Chandigarh. All of them have been negative, however, they have been residing in the facilities due to the congested houses in the Bapu Dham colony.

The administration also decided to stop the delivery of cooked food in the Bapu Dham colony. “With the distribution of cooked food there is a greater chance of infection, so we have decided to provide only dry ration for free at the moment,” said adviser Manoj Parida.

Since the majority of factory workers and vendors reside in the Bapu Dham colony, the increase in COVID-19 cases here is also causing a shortage of vendors or labor in the city. On Thursday morning, the city’s industrialists were also ordered not to employ workers from the Bapu Dham colony.

While the area was sealed due to mounting COVID-19 cases, social media posts about Bapu Dham residents who circumvented social distancing rules also triggered the decision. Social media was flooded with images of the Bapu Dham neighborhood, claiming that the area did not record a police patrol and that groups of people had been wandering the streets. Authorities said a key challenge they face in the colony is that excessively small housing units can accommodate at least ten people in a family.

Moved distancing rules in Hallomajra

Using images as evidence, residents have complained that the rules of social estrangement in Hallomajra are being circumvented. Councilman Mahesh also urged the administration to investigate the matter. The images showed that the stores were not following an odd strategy and the crowd had gathered in the area without any control.

Hardware store, electricity stores closed

On Thursday, the UT administration ordered the hardware and electrical equipment stores in the industrial area to be closed while the crowd gathered outside the stores and social distancing rules were not followed.

14 new cases in UT, 10 from Bapu Dham

Fourteen more city residents tested positive for the new coronavirus, bringing the total count in the city to 138. Of the fourteen, ten are from the Bapu Dham Colony hotspot and containment area, and sector 30 B, which is also an access point for 19 cases of COVID in the city.

The ten new cases of Bapu Dham Colony include a six-year-old boy who is in contact with an already diagnosed COVID 19 case. In addition, the boy has eight more family contacts who have been tracked and sampled for the test. Three members of the same colony family also tested positive and were contacts of a positive case. In addition to this, a 36-year-old woman tested positive for colony disease.

Later in the night, five more cases emerged from the same locality, including three from the same family who are community contacts of another patient. Two other local people, including a security guard from Panjab University tested positive for COVID 19. The security guard was on contract and all of his university contacts and family members have also been tracked down and put on quarantine.

From sector 30, a twelve-year-old girl tested positive for the new coronavirus. The girl was a contact of a positive patient who lived in the same home as her. So far, 1,845 people have been tested for COVID 19 in the city, with test results expected from 11 sampled on Thursday. A total of sixty patients were sampled in the city today.

One more downloaded from PGIMER

Meanwhile, another patient recovered and was discharged from PGIMER on Thursday. The patient was a 30-year-old contractual employee of PGIMER, who worked at the Advanced Pediatric Center as a cook before testing positive for the disease. Of the total of 135 cases, so far 21 have been discharged and one has died, leaving 113 active cases in the city. – Express News Service

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