West Bengal Lockdown: What are Containment & Buffer Zones & their Difference; Full List of Containment Zones in Kolkata

West Bengal Lockdown: Mamata Banerjee-led Government has imposed a total lockdown in all the containment and buffer zones of the state from July 9, 2020 onwards. The West Bengal Government has merged the containment and buffer zones to form "broad-based" containment zone where complete lockdown will be imposed from 5 pm to contain the spread of novel Coronavirus. Check here what are containment and Buffer Zones and get full List of Containment zones in Kolkata, Howrah, North 24 Parganas and others.

Under the West Bengal Lockdown, all the offices, be it government or private, will remain closed in the containment areas. Only essential services will be made available to people. All transport services will remain be suspended. The deadline of this lockdown is conveyed yet, however, the current phase of Lockdown is in force till July 31, 2020. The move came following the rise in number of COVID-19 cases in the state. As of now, the state has reported a total 23,837 Coronavirus cases and 850 deaths due to the deadly virus.

With the buffer zones and containment zones being merged, there are now 33 containment zones in Kolkata, 219 in North 24 Parganas and 155 in South 24 Parganas. Let's have a look at the full Here of zones in the state below:

List of District-wise Containment Zones in West Bengal

Containment Zones in Kolkata

Among 33 containment zones, some of them are Kankurgachi, Hudco, Beliaghata, Ultadanga, Phoolbagan, Bhowanipore, Jadavpur, New Alipore, Kasba, Alipore, Bijoygarh, Mukundapur and Ajaynagar.

What is a Containment Zone?

A containment zone is defined on the basis of:

Extent of cases and contacts mapped and listed by Rapid Response Team (RRT)

Geographical distribution of cases and contacts

Area with demarcated perimeter

implementation of perimeter control

If contact listing and mapping take over 24 hours, then RRT demarcates area of 3 km radius around epicentre as containment zone.

Guidelines for Containment zone would be:

No unchecked movement of people from containment zone

Only provision of essential services including medical services

Thermal screening at entry and exit points

No movement of public transport or vehicular movement

All roads to be guarded by Police

Pass for personal vehicles

Pass for on duty officials

What is a Buffer Zone?

A Buffer zone is an area that surrounds the containment zone. It falls around the containment zone where new cases are likely to appear. A buffer zone is an additional area of 5 km radius around the containment zones. There is no perimeter control for a buffer zone.

Guidelines for Buffer zones could be:

Creation of community awareness for containment of disease

Use of face masks

Follow Social Distancing norms

Avoid public places

No mass gatherings and meetings

Closure of educational institutions like schools, colleges