Telangana has over 1,000 COVID Containment Zones, 92 in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD:
Telangana has over 1,000 COVID-19 containment zones, a majority of them in Mahabubnagar and Rangareddy districts, officials said on Tuesday.

For the first time since the outbreak of COVID-19, the state health authorities came out with a complete list of containment zones in the state. The list forms part of a 59-page media bulletin released by the office of the director of public health, providing comprehensive information as per the direction of Telangana High Court.

The health department in coordination with municipal and police authorities has created containment zones in areas which reported positive cases to contain the virus spread. They have taken up door-to-door surveys in these zones and imposed restrictions on the movement of people.

Surprisingly, Mahabubnagar district has more containment zones than hotspot Greater Hyderabad. The district has 194 zones against 92 in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), which accounts for over 50 per cent of the average 1,500 cases reported daily in the state. Among the zones in GHMC, Charminar zone, which covers a large part of the old city of Hyderabad, has the maximum number of containment zones (33) followed by Secunderabad (23).

Khairatabad zone has 14, Serlingampally 10, Kukatpally 9 and LB Nagar 5 zones. GHMC had reported 4,568 infections during the last seven days and it accounts for over 60 per cent of 57,000 cases and 480 deaths reported as of Monday.

Expressing its unhappiness over lack of transparency in handling of COVID situation, the High Court had repeatedly directed the health authorities to provide information to people on a daily basis about the containment zones. Mahabubnagar district, which reported 161 positive cases in the last seven days, has the highest number of containment zones. Majority of them are in Mahabubnagar town.

Rangareddy, which shares borders with GHMC, has the second largest number with 163 zones. The district, which reported 1,108 cases in the last one week, has a maximum number of zones in urban pockets like Shamshabad, Moinabad, Meerpet and Jalpally. Medchal Malkajgiri, another district abutting GHMC and which has been witnessing a spike in cases for the last few weeks, has no containment zone, according to the bulletin. The district saw 554 new infections in the last seven days.

Sangareddy district, which also shares borders with GHMC, has 82 zones, most of them in urban areas. Statistics show 441 people tested positive in this district in the last one week. Karimnagar and Nizamabad districts, which saw a spike in COVID cases in recent days, have 57 and 12 containment zones respectively.

Warangal Urban district, which is also witnessing virus spread, has 28 zones. There are 16 zones in Adilabad districts, 52 in Jagtial, 46 in Jogulamba Gadwal, 15 in Kamareddy, 18 in Khammam and 36 in Mahabubabad.

The other districts with containment zones include Mancherial (40), Medak (26), Wanaparthy (44), Peddapalli (25) and Rajanna Sircilla (52). There are no containment zones in Bhadradri Kothagudem, Medchal Malkajgiri, Nagarkurnool, Vikarabad and Yadadri Bhongir districts.