CHENNAI: Even as the number of COVID-19 cases rises unabated in Chennai, seven corporation zones have been removed from the containment list including Royapuram, the most affected zone. The other zones are Thiruvottriyur, Manali, Madhavaram, Valsaravakkam, Alandur and Adyar.
As recently as June 15, the city had 369 containment zones with Royapuram having the most at 78. Now, the containment zones have drastically reduced, with the city having only 61 totally.
While the new containment zone guidelines have played a vital role in removal of the zones, corporation health department officials say that containing clusters and outbursts at the micro-level has been the major reason.
The revised guidelines say that there must be at least five index cases for a street to be marked in containment, while a street must not record a positive case for just 14 days, compared to 28 days earlier.
“The micro-level containment strategy adopted weeks ago helped in stopping the spread at the ward level. Monitoring by survey staff also ensured that people never stepped out of the barricaded houses,’’ said the corporation official.
Recently, the corporation had also formed a special task force to implement micro-level containment and now, they have also appointed their school teachers to monitor the process.
The school teachers have also been given the power to submit complaints to police when they come across home quarantine violators.
Apart from this, corporation officials say the ward level fever camps have further strengthened the containment strategies.
“Fever camps are more in Royapuram, Tondiarpet and Thiruvika Nagar. This way, we were able to identify Influenza Like Illnesses in the street itself, without the person requiring to go elsewhere, stopping the spread,’’ the official added.
Meanwhile, Royapuram still has close to 1,000 streets which have active cases. However, zone 5 officials pointed out that the zone is very big, starting from Royapuram and covering vast parts including Broadway, Chintadripet, Chepauk, Central, Egmore, and Vepery.
“Active cases can be due to the vastness of this zone. It does not indicate intense spread or clusters," the official said.
Apart from this, many more areas are likely to come out of containment soon. Thiruvika Nagar has six containment zones, Ambattur has two, Teynampet has three, Perungudi has two and Sholinganallur has four.
Currently, Tondiarpet (zone 4) poses a new challenge for the corporation as the zone only had eight containment zones last week but now, even as the city is in lockdown, this has risen to 24, highlighting that the spread is very intense.
An official with Zone 4 said that the area is complex with many slums, congested neighbourhoods and fishing hamlets, which poses a challenge as social distancing norms could go for a toss.
Corporation Commissioner G Prakash said about 7,500 streets in the city have active cases. "However, there have been no outbreaks or clusters for the past 45 days. This means the containment strategies are working well," he said.
He said the number of cases may reduce in the city in the next five to six days.
Key data
Total containment zones: 61
Total streets with active cases: 7500
Total active cases in Chennai: 17,683
Zone with most active cases: Tondiarpet has 2351 cases, Royapuram has 2337
People discharged in city: 22,887
Deaths: 601
Daily average of people attending fever camps so far: About 35,000
Data: Chennai Corporation