Twelve containment zones had been identified in Mysuru city and tighter rules had been enforced in these locations, demarcating “no movement” sectors around the houses of COVID-19 patients who had been isolated in the designated hospital here.
Mysuru had been designated as a COVID-19 hotspot and accordingly stringent precautionary measures had been enforced in some parts of the city. Till date, Mysuru has 55 active COVID-19 cases out of 86 persons testing positive.
The areas which had been declared as ‘containment zones’ include Housing Board Colony, Kuvempunagar; Janata Nagar; Teachers’ Layout; Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Nagar; Meena Bazaar area; Vijayanagar 1st and 2nd stages; Gokulam; Jayalakshmipuram; Srirampura Second stage; J.P. Nagar; and Nazarabad.
In urban areas, a 200-metre radius around the houses belonging to the patients (who had been shifted to the COVID-19 hospital on KRS Road) had been demarcated as “no movement” containment zone.
Buffer zones had been declared around 5-km radius of the affected houses. “There will be intensive surveillance in these zones,” said Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G. Sankar.
Meanwhile, Minister in-charge of Mysuru district S.T. Somashekar visited the Mysuru zoo, which is closed since March 15 over the pandemic, and inspected the steps taken against the spreading of the infection to the animals.
The zoo officials briefed the Minister on the steps takenin view of reports of COVID-19 infecting animals as reported from a zoo in the United States.
The Minister, accompanied by S.A. Ramdas, MLA, Zoo Director Ajit Kulkarni and others, went around the zoo premises in a battery operated vehicle. The zoo and many other tourist sites, including the palace, were shut much well ahead of the lockdown as a safety precaution.