CHENNAI: The Chennai corporation has initiated containment measures at Ashok Nagar 19th street after a cluster of 10 Covid-19 cases were reported in the area.Officials said the affected were not found to have been in contact with each other.
Health Minister Ma Subramanian, Corporation Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi, and Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan visited the street on Wednesday. The first case from the cluster was reported around December 20, when a woman who was attending to her hospitalised husband tested positive for the virus. Since then, nine other cases have been reported from the street.
According to sources, while entry and exit to the street have been restricted, initiating tight containment measures is difficult. “We cannot ask the residents not to go outside. To do that, we need to have a system like earlier where FOCUS volunteers were on call to assist those under quarantine. We don’t have the manpower to do it currently,” said an official. Two commercial establishments on the street have been asked to shut temporarily.
With schools, colleges and offices having reopened, other residents of the street may not be able to avoid going out. The officials said they have now extended the contact tracing to schools and colleges too.
“We are getting details of the schools where children from the affected families go to, and intimate the school. We also test contacts from there,” said a corporation official. So far, 84 samples have been tested related to this cluster.