People mistake stickers as mark of Covid cases

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 27.03.2020

Health workers of Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) have started pasting stickers outside houses and apartments of people who have been home-quarantined.

However, many people have started mistaking the stickers as an indication of Covid positive patients living in the homes. Such messages along with the photo of the sticker have started circulating in WhatsApp groups in the local area, adding to panic among residents.

For instance, one message read that one person had tested positive for corona in RA Puram and exhorted the WhatsApp group members to be careful. Similar messages of corona having reached T Nagar or Madipakkam were also doing the rounds. This led to panic, especially among senior citizens.

On Thursday, GCC, on its official twitter handle, reassured people that there was nothing to be scared of, as these were residents who had been home quarantined for 28 days after returning from a foreign country.

“Please do not spread such fake messages that would hurt them and their noble cause,” GCC said in tweets. To debunk such rumours, GCC has asked people to tweet their queries with the hashtag #GCCmythbusters.

People returning from foreign countries have been asked to home quarantine for 28 days. GCC started pasting stickers only from early this week and in some cases, they have backdated the date to match with the start of the patient’s home quarantine.

A reader pointed out that the stickers printed in Tamil had words which would scare people about corona positive patients staying there. GCC clarified that they would be replacing such stickers with new ones.

SIGN OF SAFETY: An official pasting a home-quarantine sticker outside a house in the cit