CHENNAI: Three frontline staff in the city, including a conservancy and malaria worker, have tested positive for COVID-19.
A male housekeeping supervisor working at the Egmore railway station tested positive for COVID-19 recently, corporation officials confirmed.
"We got information about the case on Tuesday," said a corporation official.
The man, a contract worker, was in charge of cleaning and maintenance work at the station. Officials are still investigating how he contracted the virus. The man said that he has not come in contact with another patient, said officials.
The man was on duty until April 13 and other contract staff who worked with him have been tested.
"His close and extended contacts have been tested and the results are awaited," said an official.
A 35-year-old sanitary worker in Pulianthope who was working on a contract for the city corporation also tested positive on Wednesday, corporation officials confirmed.
R Parvathi, his neighbour, told Express that he was taken for tests on Monday as part of a routine check in the area and that he did not display any visible symptoms.
"He was on duty until Wednesday morning when the test results came back positive," she said.
Similarly, last week, a malaria worker who worked for the city corporation had tested positive for the virus in the Thiru Vi Ka Nagar zone of the Chennai corporation, said corporation sources. He is said to be around 50 years of age.
"He was asymptomatic and we found out that he was positive during a routine check-up that was done since there is a considerable number of cases in his area. He has been admitted to the Kilpauk Medical College Hospital and is stable," said a corporation official. The official added that his close contacts including family have tested negative.
It is not clear if he was deployed for the house-to-house survey that the city corporation has been undertaking on a daily basis, with each malaria worker covering 100 houses to check for symptoms of the virus.
Meanwhile, the total number of COVID-19 positive cases in the city stood at 373 with 15 cases on Wednesday alone. Ambattur recorded its first case on Tuesday with a resident who worked for a TV channel in Royapuram testing positive. This leaves Manali the only zone in the city having no reported COVID-19 cases so far.