COVID-19: 10 Ahmedabad wards so far declared containment zones

One more ward of Ahmedabad city was declared as a COVID-19 containment zone on Sunday, taking the total number of such wards here to 10, a senior civic official said. The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation is taking steps to ensure lockdown rules are strictly followed in these affected areas to contain the spread of coronavirus, he said.

The Maninagar ward in south Ahmedabad is the latest to be added in the list of containment zones, the official said. The COVID-19 figures in Ahmedabad till Saturday are as follows: Total cases-3,543, deaths-184, active cases-2,815, discharged-525, total samples tested-30,166 (at the rate of 5,000 samples per million), the official said.

Ahmedabad has been declared a red zone by the Centre, and the state government will decide on the lockdown rules for the city in the third phase, starting May 4, based on guidelines issued by the central government. "The Jamalpur, Khadia, Dariyapur, Shahpur and Asarwa from the city's central areas, Behrampura, Danilimda and Maninagar from south Ahmedabad, Gomtipur from north city and Saraspur from eastern part of the city have been declared as containment zones," Ahmedabad Municipal Commissioner Vijay Nehra said in a video message.

He said the Jamalpur ward is the worst affected, accounting for 33 per cent of the total COVID-19 deaths in the city and the highest number of cases. In order to ensure people of the affected zones follow lockdown rules, the civic body has appointed 10 nodal officers to co-ordinate with the police, he said.

These officials will also rope in local political, religious and social leaders to persuade people to follow the lockdown norms, which people were not following in entirety, especially in the affected areas, Nehra said. To further restrict movement, the civic body has also decided to block five bridges in the city, where no movement will be allowed even if people have a valid pass, the official said.

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