Containment zones back in Bengaluru; BBMP seals down three houses

With the outbreak of Omicron variant cases in Bengaluru, containment zones have also made a comeback, with Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials on Friday ‘sealing’ three such micro-containment zones in various parts of the city.

Three houses located at Koramangala, JP Nagar and Basavanagudi were declared micro-containment zones after multiple family members tested positive for Covid-19. Their samples have been sent for genome sequencing to check for the Omicron variant.

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However, BBMP health officials said they had not made any major changes in the identification of clusters. “We are monitoring micro-containment zones closely and as decided earlier, places with three or more positive cases are declared as containment zones,” said BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta.

As of Friday, there were 57 containment zones in the city, of which 20 were reported from Bommanahalli alone.

On the brighter side, Dasarahalli and RR Nagar do not have a single micro containment zone.

Amid suspicion that the houses of Omicron patients were being declared as containment zones, BBMP Chief Health Officer Balasundar A S clarified that the Omicron patient and all his contacts who had tested positive are under institutional quarantine.

“When they are under our supervision, there is no need to declare their houses as containment zones,” Balasundar asserted.

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