2 municipal wards in city sealed for 14 days, says official

: Two municipal wards in the city were sealed for 14 days in view of five coronavirus cases detected in the two areas, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike commissioner B H AnilKumar said on Friday.

The wards are Bapuji Nagar and Padarayanapura.

"We sealed the two areas for that much time (14 days)," Kumar told PTI.

Earlier speaking to reporters, he said people would not be allowed to venture out. If they violate the regulations, criminal cases would be filed against them, he said.

"We are pretty sure that people won't defy the rule," he said.

Besides these two areas, no other area has been chosen for total seal-down, Kumar clarified.

Mayor M Gautham Kumar told PTI that the reason behind sealing the two wards is that these are thickly populated areas and people there were defying the lockdown.

"It was difficult to control people there," the Mayor said.

According to the Palike officials, nobody would be permitted to venture out as the essential goods would be supplied at their doorstep.

The BBMP has built two entry and exit gates in these areas, which are in close proximity, he said adding that there would be door-to-door screening of people living in the areas.

According to the bulletin issued by the BBMP commissioner on his Twitter handle on Thursday, 69 positive cases have come to fore in which 16 patients recovered completely till Thursday while there was one death.

As many as 2,490 people were screened, of which 33 were referred for further tests, the regular bulletin issued by the BBMP said.

As the news spread about clampdown in these two wards, many people in different parts of the city got panicky. Soon messages started spreading that many other wards would also be sealed.

The BBMP commissioner clarified that there were no such plans.

Anilkumar tweeted, "Dear citizens, I appeal to all of you not to panic & go out to buy essentials. Seal-down orders are only for Bapuji Nagar and Padarayanapura due to fresh cases & to contain spread of #Covid19. Urge TV news channels to report facts & not speculate."