Intense lockdown ends, but corpn won’t let guard down

Intense lockdown ends, but corpn won’t let guard down

Will Continue All Measures: Commissioner

Komal.Gautham@timesgroup.com

Chennai:  05.06.2020

Greater Chennai Corporation will continue its fever clinics, quarantine management and contact tracing even as the intense lockdown comes to an end. “We will ensure all present systems work with more vigour and technological support,” said corporation commissioner G Prakash.

All activities such as 450 fever clinics, 3,500 focus volunteers, 11,800 fever surveillance workers, awareness and educational activities at slums will continue. “We are hopeful that even those who were scared to come out due to lockdown will attend fever clinics now. Our positivity rate is about 17% as on July 3 when we tested the maximum number of samples – 11,500. Of them, only 1,895 tested positive. Due to the lockdown, we also have a database of everyone under quarantine,” Prakash said.

In zones such as Tondiarpet, Thiru Vi Ka Nagar and Royapuram, survey of slums has been completed and almost all possible cases have been identified. Zonal monitoring officer of Thiru Vi Ka Nagar Arun Thamburaj said 90% of people wear masks and are aware of social distancing. K P Karthikeyan, zonal monitoring officer of Tondiarpet, said doctors and nurses are now visiting markets and streets with roadside shops to check people. “We are aware that after lockdown people will begin moving and to avoid new cases in specific areas, we will intensify measures,” he said.

Madhusudhan Reddy, joint commissioner, health, said amid the lockdown, the corporation has ensured 1,500 streets that had reported cases are now Covid free. “We plan to increase this number. We have identified almost all possible cases such as their contacts to ensure the spread is controlled. During the lockdown, we were able to fish out almost all cases. Thermal screening has helped us identify cases we may have missed. Now, we just need to continue the surveillance and ensure the quarantine management system works with 100% efficiency,” he said.

He added that there would be more challenges as the city opens. “But our information and community activities have helped create awareness. We are hopeful that people will follow norms to help curb new clusters,” he said.