GUWAHATI: The Kamrup Metro district administration has hinted at acting tough on violators of containment zone protocols as the threat of community transmission of coronavirus looms large, particularly in view of the 25 COVID-19 positive cases without travel history detected in the city of late.
As it is, the number of containment zones, where unauthorised entry and exit of people is prohibited, in the city has gone past 60, with as many as 20 such zones declared on Sunday itself following detection of 20 COVID-19 positive cases.
“We will be taking strict action as per law against any person violating containment zone regulations. The idea of a containment zone is not to punish people but to contain the spread of the virus when a person from that zone is detected COVID-19 positive,” Kamrup Metro deputy commissioner Biswajit Pegu told the media on Monday.
Pegu said that the protocols of primary and secondary tracing would be followed after detection of a positive case and subsequently all such contacts would be tested and confined to the zone,” Pegu said.
A surge in positive cases is inevitable with 17 trains from Kerala and two from Karnataka, bringing over 25,000 passengers here from Monday.
Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had, a couple of days back, anticipated a surge this week in view of the bulk train passenger arrivals from the two states, but hoped for the situation to improve soon.
The state government, for its part, would randomly conduct 50,000 tests from Tuesday till June 30 before deciding on the need to impose stricter restrictions, including another lockdown in the city, given the 25 positive cases with their sources of infections still not known.
Sarma had informed reporters on Saturday that 12 medical centres in the city where people could voluntarily undergo tests from Tuesday, have been identified. “If a sizeable number of the 50,000 samples tested comes out positive, then another lockdown is inevitable,” he had said.