Coronavirus | Tondiarpet becomes fifth zone to cross the 1,000-case mark

Corporation evolves zone-wise plan to target slums.

With Tondiarpet becoming the fifth zone in Chennai Corporation to register over a thousand COVID-19 patients, officials have come up with localised plans targeting slums for testing.

Already Royapuram, Thiru Vi Ka Nagar, Kodambakkam and Teynampet zones have reported more than 1,000 cases. The number of COVID-19 positive cases is inching towards the 2,000-mark in Royapuram.

“We have intensified zone-wise localised plans, targeting slums for house-to-house thermal screening and picking up symptomatic persons for focused testing,” said Chennai Corporation special nodal officer J. Radhakrishnan.

According to him, civic workers were carrying out decongestion by shifting residents to community halls and giving kabsura kudineer, herbal drinks, vitamin and zinc tablets.

Work on disinfection of streets, public toilets and houses has been carried out in all parts of the city.

The agency is resorting to cocooning of elders. “Cocooning is a term applicable within the house but we will initially try and target about a lakh elders who take tablets for BP and sugar from Corporation Urban Primary Health Centres and dispensaries. So far, about 850 residents in various zones have been taken out from the area around clusters in slums,” he explained.

Using the services of NGOs, the civic agency was trying to convince more residents to come out of the neighborhood till the areas are disinfected.

“For the rest, localised containment is the strategy and identifying, testing and shifting positive, if any, for treatment,” Mr. Radhakrishnan said. The civic agency is using the services of 97 NGOs and 2,700 volunteers for grassroots reach without losing focus on information, education and communication campaign (IEC), herd masking, social distancing and cocooning elders by tracking the enlisted elders.

Stressing the need for focused testing, he said non-medical methods such as masking, hand washing frequently, social distancing and not venturing out unnecessarily was the sustainable way to break the chain.

Corporation Commissioner G. Prakash said vehicles manned by civic workers disinfected 25,393 km of streets using 21.5 lakh litres of disinfectants, such as sodium hypochlorite solution. The vehicles frequent the streets where positive cases have been reported in eight badly affected zones, including Tondiarpet.