538 more cases in Chennai as COVID-19 now enters congested Sowcarpet area
CHENNAI: Three more people, who tested positive for COVID-19, died in Chennai on a Monday when the city recorded 538 out of Tamil Nadu’s 798 cases.
The city currently contributes 55 percent of the cases in the State.
The COVID-19 spread has now entered Sowcarpet, one of the most congested areas in the city, where members of the north Indian communities live in large numbers. This comes under the Royapuram zone.
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"Elakandappan Street at Sowcarpet has been barricaded. We suspect a spread from the Pulianthope area which is just close by," said a corporation official.
Officials suspect that the spread is from the neighbouring Pulianthope area which saw a massive spike due to the prayer meeting cluster.
"18 people in the Periamet slum area are contacts of a person from Aaduthotti street in Pulianthope which is a hotspot. Eight people from the street already had the virus," said the corporation official.
Stringer Street in George town is another hotspot where the spread is becoming uncontrollable and tracing the contacts has now led to Thideer Nagar, the official added.
Meanwhile, officials with Kodambakkam zone said that the spike in cases in the area came from the Koyambedu cluster.
"Most of them are contacts of people in the market. Some had visited the market too," an official said.
As of May 10, the city corporation has 3050 active cases with 531 cases in Kodambakkam, followed by 519 in Royapuram, 405 in Tiruvika Nagar and 326 in Teynampet.
Containment zones in Chennai has gone up to 690. There are 124 in Tiruvika Nagar and 116 in Royapuram.
Surprisingly, there are just 22 zones under the Kodambakkam Corporation which has 614 active cases. This highlights the fact that cases are concentrated in smaller clusters here, unlike north Chennai.
Special Officer for tackling the COVID-19 crisis Dr J Radhakrishnan held a meeting at Ripon Buildings to discuss the measures being put in place.
He said that a total of 1054 people are in the 39 COVID care centres of the city corporation.
"239 people are in Velammal Engineering College, 170 in DG Vaishnav, 112 in Loyola, and 444 in the Trade Center," said the special officer.
Dr Radhakrishnan said that 743 people had recovered in Chennai as of May 11 and were discharged. He added that the 177 people who returned to the city from abroad on May 10 were screened and are under observation.