Thirteen cities–Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Thane, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Indore, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Chengalpattu and Thiruvallur–are listed as worst affected by Coronavirus in India and they constitute about 70 per cent of the COVID-19 positive cases in the country, official sources said.
In view of it, the Union Cabinet Secretary held a meeting with municipal commissioners, district magistrates of the 13 COVID-19 hit cities to take a review of the situation. Chief secretaries of all states and union territories concerned attended the meeting.
The measures taken by the officials and the staff of the municipal corporations for the management of COVID-19 cases were reviewed in the meeting, and the central government has already issued guidelines on management of COVID-19 in urban settlements, the Cabinet Secretary said in a release.
Highlights of the strategy include work on high risk factors, indices such as confirmation rate, fatality rate, doubling rate and tests per million people among others, the release stated.
The Centre has stressed that containment zones are to be geographically defined based on factors like mapping of cases and contacts and their geographical dispersion. This would enable in demarcating a well-defined perimeter and enforcing the strict protocol of lockdown, the Cabinet Secretary stated.
Municipal corporations can decide if residential colonies, mohallas, municipal wards or police-station areas, municipal zones, towns can be designated as containment zones, as required, it stated.
The cities were advised that the area should be appropriately defined by the district administration and local urban body with technical inputs from local level, it added.
