Don’t hide any symptoms to our COVID-19 survey staff, Chennai Corporation urges public
CHENNAI: Terming the next 12 days crucial, Chennai Corporation Commissioner G Prakash has requested people not to hide any symptoms when the survey staff come for fever screening door-to-door.
Addressing reporters here at Amma Maligai, in the corporation headquarters, Prakash on Friday said if symptoms are identified early, they can be treated soon and a network of healthy people could be created in the city.
“You may have slight throat infection, breathing issues or slight cold. If you mention these symptoms, we can treat them early," he said.
He said that a review at the corporation's death registers showed that many people had hidden their symptoms. “If we had tested them early, we could have saved their lives,’’ Prakash said.
Prakash said that all the survey staff have been given thermal guns to screen temperature. “The instrument will show a yellow or red display when a person has fever. Apart from this, all primary health care centres have been given pulse oximeters,’’ the commissioner said.
Prakash said that if the oxygen saturation is below 95, the staff may take the patients to a government hospital, care centre or private hospital of the patient’s choice. “We have given the instruments to zone 4, 5 and 6 completely. All the PHCs and doctors at fever camps use this,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, in Chennai, about 2.10 lakh people have so far been tested for COVID-19 using RT PCR kits. “37,070 of them have tested positive,’’ Prakash said.
The Chennai Corporation has also conducted 513 fever camps till now, which were attended by 31,509 people. Of these, 689 people with Influenza like Illnesses were identified. “About 400 doctors are with us to conduct fever camps and manage cases at the primary health centres. Per ward three camps are conducted,’’ said Prakash.
He also said that the GCC has appointed 4,000 volunteers to help and monitor patients who are in home quarantine. "One volunteer will cover 10 to 15 streets. They will help distribute essentials for people in quarantine," the commissioner said.
He said that as most people will be in their houses due to the lockdown, it would be easier to conduct a fever survey.
Currently, Tondiarpet has 2322 active cases, Royapuram has 2212, Teynampet has 2070, and Anna Nagar has 1957, among Chennai’s total 16,882 active cases. So far, 501 people have died in the city.