In the middle of recording the sharpest rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in the city, the Greater Chennai Corporation has removed 86 containment streets from the list of the containment areas on Friday. 

These streets were removed as it didn't report any positive case for the pandemic in the last 14 days, as part of the revised guidelines which prescribe and advise on the annexations and the removal of the streets under the ambit of the containment.

According to the reports, the corporation has observed the tenure of 28 days to remove the street from the containment areas and if the street has reported no cases during the tenure, it would be unmapped from the containment and the corporation has now reduced the tenure to 14 days with accord to the revised guidelines. 

This has been the reason why the city is witnessing the reducal in the number of containment streets. On Wednesday, the Corporation has removed 376 streets from the list of containment zones and as of Wednesday, the city has reported 774 streets under containment. Royapuram (Zone 5) and Thiru Vi Ka Nagar (zone 6) have seen the removal of most numbers of streets with 72 and 67 respectively on Wednesday.  

The reports say that 18 streets from Royapuram and 20 streets in Thiru Vi Ka Nagar were removed from the list of Containment areas on Friday. According to the Chennai Corporation, Royapuram - Zone 5 has reported the most number of cases in the city so far as of Friday morning. It has 1,699 cases followed by Kodambakkam -Zone 10 with 1231 cases, and Thiru Vi Ka Nagar - Zone 6, with 1032 cases.

The city currently has 635 containment streets after the removal of some streets on Thursday and Friday and despite the removal of some streets, Royapuram and Thiru Vi Ka Nagar still have more containment streets in Chennai with 131 and 101 respectively. Recently, the Tamil Nadu government has issued fresh guidelines for demarcating the containment areas as part of its containment strategies to mitigate the grounds of the rapid spread.  

Must read: New containment zone rules in TN - What do you need to know?