One ward accounts for 30% of cases in Ambattur zone

Srikkanth.D@timesgroup.com

Chennai: 23.05.2020

Exactly a month ago, Ambattur (zone 7) was among the two zones in the city with zero cases. As on Friday, the zone has 376 positive cases and a major chunk of them (114) is from a single ward — Mogapppair East (ward 93).

It is among the 14 wards which have more than 100 cases. There are 200 wards in the corporation.

The first case in the zone was reported on April 22. The affected person was an employee of a television channel in which 26 staff tested positive. Even then, officials were not perturbed as the television office, he worked in was located in Royapuram zone and it was a hotspot then with more than 100 cases.

“We thought it will be contained as there was restricted movement. For a week after the first case was reported, the number of cases was only 20,” a staff with Ambattur zone said. However, the emergence of the Koyambedu cluster meant that the cases began to steadily rise in the zone. The first instance was that of a green grocer from Padikuppam area, who used to buy vegetables from Koyambedu.

According to a corporation health official, the high number of cases in ward 93 was due to the Koyambedu cluster. Mogappair East has a large number of residents who either have shop at Koyambedu market or work there.

“After the Koyambedu market was temporarily closed and shifted to Thirumazhisai, there has been a decreasing trend. For the past few days, cases reported are family contacts of already reported cases,” the official said.