CHENNAI: Police personnel will from now on be engaged to ensure that people under home quarantine stay indoors and don’t pose a risk of transmitting the coronavirus to others, Chennai city police commissioner A K Viswanathan told Express.
A special police team has been formed to check on those who have been home quarantined and bring them back in the event that they have left their houses. However, no force would be used.
“The special team is to be headed by a senior police officer. Each police station will have three personnel with the protection gear who will assist the health staff while attending to people under home quarantine. In case the patients are found to be loitering on the streets, they will be brought back to their homes and the police will monitor them every day,” Viswanathan said.
Over the last five days, the total number of people within the city limits who have been placed under home quarantine has risen from 1890 to 3692 as on Monday, according to data released by the Greater Chennai Corporation.
Teynampet and Adyar zones of the city corporation continue to have the most number of people presently under home quarantine with 441 and 401 cases respectively, according to data released by the civic body.
In total, 2691 people are now under home quarantine across all 15 zones of the city corporation while another 991 have already completed their home quarantine period of 28 days.
“We have asked personnel in the special teams to voluntarily stay away from home so they do not infect their family and the police quarters. If the police personnel stay at home, their houses and family members also will be regularly checked at police hospitals where the paramedical staff are ordered to stay 24x7,” said a senior police officer.
The check is to be done twice a day.
While corporation officials said that in the last phase, people were quarantined largely based on their travel history to coronavirus affected countries, this also includes people who have come in contact with those who have tested positive for the virus in the city.
“This list includes people who have a travel history and also those who have been traced as contacts (of people who tested positive),” Corporation Commissioner G Prakash told Express.
To ensure social distancing and to alert others to the presence of those under quarantine, the city corporation is to put up green stickers outside their houses. The stickers say ‘COVID-19/ DO NOT VISIT/ HOME UNDER QUARANTINE’ and will also carry details such as the name of the person under quarantine, address and the number of persons under quarantine in the residence.
It also mentions when the date of quarantine has begun and when it is scheduled to end.
“It’s a time of emergency and it has to be taken in the right spirit,” Prakash told reporters.
The commissioner has also warned that any private hospital, irrespective of its size and capacity, will be ‘severely dealt’ with if found not having adequate spraying equipment to disinfect their premises.
All private hospitals are to be inspected by senior officials of the corporation, including Deputy Commissioners and Joint Commissioners from Monday and major government and private hospitals would be inspected by the Corporation Commissioner.