TUMAKURU: The fort town of Sira famous for the Mallik Rehan Darga heaved a sigh of relief as deputy commissioner Dr K Rakesh Kumar on Wednesday issued an order denotifying the Begum Mohalla as a containment zone.
The first positive case in Sira was a 65-year-old man who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat meeting in Delhi and died on April 28. His 13-year-old son also tested positive and recovered at the Indira Gandhi hospital in Bengaluru. Since then, the town had not witnessed any positive case for four weeks and thus the area has been withdrawn from the containment zone.
"The follow-up samples of the suspects in Sira have also tested negative. Activities in Sira will turn normal. But the two other containment zones in Tumakuru will continue to be sealed," informed the DC. The district is in the orange zone with seven cases including two deaths, a recovery and four active cases.
But in Sira, about 30 family members of the patient who died were institutionally quarantined at the Mother-Child Hospital for two weeks and the administration sealed the Begum Mohalla on April 17.
Officials and staff of the revenue department and city municipality led by tahsildar Nahida Zam Zam have already started removing the barricades and life is turning normal.
With this, as many as 7,927 residents of 1,325 households, who were in the containment zone and had to depend upon officials and volunteers to meet all their needs from milk for babies to medicines, can move anywhere in the town.
Residents in and around the 5 km buffer zone including those of Sira Lake, Darga Circle, Mehboob Nagara and Assem layout, Girinathanahalli, Bajil Anjaneya temple, Ojugunte Hanumanthapura and Yaliyuru are also relieved.
The town with a population of about 55,000 is a gateway to Chitradurga and Davanagere off the Pune-Bengaluru NH-48.