Extended areas in north Chennai show steady rise

Extended areas in north Chennai show steady rise

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:10.06.2020

The extended areas to the north of the city continue to register a steady rise in cases with Tiruvottiyur zone nearing the 1,000 mark and Madhavaram and Manali zones too recording a cumulative total of about 1,200 cases, as on Tuesday. A month ago, the three zones shared less than 140 cases between them.

According to a zonal staff in Tiruvottiyur, the cases are scattered across the zone and not concentrated at a specific area or ward like in most affected zones such as Royapuram. “As far as the neighbourhoods which are most affected, Tsunami quarters in Ennore and the surrounding areas used to have more cases, but it has now come down. Now, our focus is on Tiruvottiyur.”

A month ago, there were only 64 cases in Tiruvottitur zone as against 870 now. At the beginning of May, Manali zone had recorded only 3 cases and now has more than 300.

“In Manali zone, most cases are in wards 19 and 18 - MMDA Mathur and Manali,” said an official with zone 2. Similar is the case with Madhavaram zone, which only had 9 cases at that time and now has 650 cases.

However, the officials are not quick to blame the Koyambedu cluster alone as the reason for the spread, suggesting that there might be community transmission too.

“What we have to do is cut off transmission,” said an official from one of the three zones, unwilling to be named.

One solace though is the less number of deaths in these zones. While Tiruvottiyur and Manali zones have recorded 3 deaths, Madhavaram zone has 2.