UP govt issues new COVID-19 guidelines for apartments, colonies

As Uttar Pradesh sees a continuous spike in COVID-19 cases, the Yogi Adityanath government on Sunday issued fresh guidelines for creating containment zones and directed officials for bringing them under tight surveillance. The government has issued separate instructions for multi-story buildings and other residential areas.

Separate guidelines are being framed for multi-storey apartments. As of now, the entire floor of the apartment will be sealed if one coronavirus case is reported and over one case, the entire building will be sealed.

"Surveillance to be intensified in containment zones. After one COVID case on a floor of the multistorey building, the entire floor would be declared a containment zone. If more than one floor comes under scrutiny, building to be turned containment zone," said Suhas LY, District magistrate, Gautam Budh Nagar while speaking to ANI.

The containment zone will end only if no patient is found for 14 days.

In a letter to district officials, top police officers and chief medical officers, Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary RK Tiwari on Sunday instructed that if any COVID-19 patient is found in urban areas, the area will be declared as a Containment Zone.

"The area of 20 houses will be sealed if even one patient is found positive with the virus. If more than one case found, the area of 60 houses will be sealed. The movement of the people in the containment zone will be stopped and the condition will be the same for the 14 days," as per the letter.

Rules for colonies and other residential areas

According to the directions issued by the Uttar Pradesh government, in the area where one COVID-19 patient is found, the surrounding 25 meter area will be turned into a containment zone and 50 meter area will be made into a containment zone if more than one case is found. Depending on the population, there will be about 20 houses in an area around 25 meters and about 60 houses in a radius of 50 meters. A team will be set up to monitor the houses located in each containment zone, consisting of one member each from the Health Department, Municipal Corporation or Municipality or Village Development and Panchayati Raj (Rural Area) and local administration.

Instructions to officers

There will be a team of three members in total. A supervisor will be deployed on every five teams, who will take information from the five teams under them to the DSO. The orders have been issued by the Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh Rajendra Kumar Tiwari to all the DM, SSP / SP, CMO and other officers of the state. 

Over 4,000 cases were reported from Uttar Pradesh in the last 24 hours.