Lockdown within 72 hrs of zone-wise mapping: Taposh

Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh on Tuesday said lockdown will be enforced within 48 to 72 hours of identifying the zone-wise map.

The DSCC mayor was talking to media at the Nagar Bhaban (city corporation building) in the capital after a meeting of central committee on implementation of zoning system to contain the COVID-19 pandemic in the afternoon.

He further said the lockdown will be implemented in a coordinated way after consulting with all stakeholders of a specific zone

“The health ministry informed us that they would require another two to three days to specify the zone-wise map. We can implement the lockdown within 48 to 72 hours of getting the map,“ Taposh said.

He further said the meeting was held to take necessary preparations of the lockdown.

“Any area is yet to be locked down in the DSCC. Before enforcing the lockdown, we will make a plan in coordination with the representatives of health ministry, law enforcement agencies, ward councillors and civil society,” he told the media briefing, reports news agency BSS.

“We will go for lockdown implementation after raising awareness among people and engineering them with the programme as the people would not have to suffer for anything,” he said.

Seeking cooperation from the citizens, the DSCC mayor urged the people to accept the sufferings due to lockdown to remain safe from the highly infectious novel virus.

Institute of Epidemiology and Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) director Meerjady Sabrina Flora and policy adviser of a2i (access to information) Anir Chowdhury joined the meeting online and presented some documents while Dhaka Metropolitan Police (Lalbagh zone) deputy commissioner, Dhaka district civil surgeon and additional deputy commissioner of Dhaka district were present at the meeting.

Some areas of the two city corporations in Dhaka, Chattogram, Narayanganj, Narshingdi and Gazipur district have been marked as ‘red zones’ to contain the spread of coronavirus.

Seventeen areas under Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC), 28 areas under Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC), 11 areas in Chattogram, Sadar, Rupganj and Araihazar upazilas of Narayanganj, Narsingdi Model and Madhabdi thanas, Palash upazila in Narsingdi district and all upazilas of Gazipur district will be declared as ‘red zone’.

According to guidelines of Directorate General of Health Services of Bangladesh, an area could be identified as ‘red zone’ if 10 or more COVID-19 patients are found in every 100,000 people of any area except Dhaka metropolitan area within 14 consecutive days. The guidelines also said an area could be identified as ‘yellow zone’ if three to nine COVID-19 patients are found in every 100,000 people of any area except the Dhaka metro within previous 14 days.

In case of Dhaka metro, an area could be identified as red zone if 60 or more in every 100,000 people are tested positive for the novel virus in 14 consecutive days while ‘yellow zones’ are where the patient number within that time will be three to 59, the guidelines say.