THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The high number of positive cases could qualify an apartment complex, a residential area or even a big house to be declared a micro-containment zone (MCZ) with stringent triple lockdown restrictions in force, as per the guidelines announced by the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA) on Thursday.
An MCZ has the potential for high spread due to the presence of more than five people with infection on a given day. This could be a shopping mall, street, market, workshop, harbour, fishing village, fish landing centre, office, IT company, etc.
Clustering potential may be evaluated at the district level on a daily basis and the notification may be restricted to 100 metres such that the restrictions are limited to the most affected stretch, said the guidelines. Any micro-containment zone should remain so for seven days from the date of such notification and it will not be a micro-containment zone if no further notification comes on the eight day.
The micro-containment zones will be monitored by sectoral magistrates to ensure Covid-appropriate behaviour. The guidelines also suggest more testing, contact tracing activities and support through ASHA workers.
The state government has introduced its Covid containment strategy based on the density of new positive cases in a week in a particular location. It will be managed by imposing restrictions at the ward level and through MCZs. As many as 634 local body wards with a Weekly Infection Population Ratio (WIPR) of eight have been put under control from Thursday. These included 87 local self-government bodies, including 20 grama panchayats.
Last week, 266 wards in 52 local bodies, including seven grama panchayats, with a WIPR of above 10 were put under control. The revision was made after the Covid spread in the state did not come down despite the control measures. WIPR is calculated based on the density of infection (number of positive cases per 1,000 people) in a region in a week.