Corpn begins enforcement of stricter norms to check spread at micro level

Steps Include Barricading 20 Streets With 600 Houses

Siddharth.Prabhakar@timesgroup.com

Chennai:04.04.2020

As part of its micro-containment plan, Greater Chennai Corporation has started enforcing stricter lockdown regulations in areas where clusters of Covid-19 positive cases have been found, senior officials said on Friday.

These include barricading around 20 streets with some 600 houses and going door-to-door to exhort people not to come out. Some of these areas include Pudupet in North Chennai, Saidapet in Central Chennai and Madipakkam in South Chennai. In one area in North Chennai, a senior official said, three members of a family had tested positive.

In Teynampet zone, a civic body official used a public address system to appeal to people to stay put in their homes, said C R Balaji, a resident of the neighbourhood.

In places like Pudupet, policemen were deployed at the entrance of barricaded streets to keep a check on those venturing outside. They were making continuous announcements using drones asking residents to stay indoors. Officials used autorickshaws fitted with public address systems to go around the area asking residents to cooperate. Police also had a list of people residing in each house to ensure they stayed indoors. People were not allowed to gather outside their houses.

“This doesn’t mean people will not be allowed to come out. They can go out for buying essential commodities, but as such movement of other people through that area will be stopped,” an official said. This is being done to avoid the spread of infection, if any, he added.

These regulations are in force in 12-14 localities across the city. The civic body had last week started a containment plan wherein homes of Covid-19 positive patients would be marked as epicentres and 2,500 houses around them would be taken as a focus area. Every such house would be inspected on a daily basis to track fever cases.

In some parts of the city this containment drive has yielded only a few ‘flu’ cases and some other cases of cases. “In case they show symptoms, we refer them to the nearest health centre for a check-up with the doctor,” an official said.

(With inputs from Sindhu Kannan)

People outside a ration shop in Chinthdripet to collect dole of ₹1,000 and ration items