CHENNAI: As part of its containment plan, the Chennai Corporation has advised people, who are living in the areas where positive COVID19 cases were recorded, to always wear a mask even when they are inside their houses.
These areas are Arumbakkam, Purasawalkam, Virugambakkam, Saidapet, West Mambalam, Santhome, Alandur, Porur and Kotturpuram. So far, 15 cases have been reported in Chennai from people living in these nine localities.
With the corporation stepping up preventive measures with special focus on these nine areas, the city corporation commissioner G Prakash told reporters on Sunday, ‘‘The people in these areas are strongly advised to remain at home and come out only for the very basic needs and always with a mask inside their homes also."
When asked whether it’s a safety precaution to keep people who may seemingly have no severe symptoms from passing it on to family, the commissioner said, "yes".
So far the government has advised people to wear masks only in a public place and this is the first time they are advised to do it even when in their homes.
When asked about why people are advised to wear masks even when inside houses, Prakash said, it is the usual protocol in times of a pandemic. "The containment zones are definitely hot spots, no doubt,'' he said.
A senior corporation official told Express, "We had initially refrained from making the details of locations (where people tested positive for the virus) public, but we did so since some people were not taking it seriously enough."
However, following the reaction to the advise on wearing masks even when inside houses, the Corporation Commissioner told Express, “This may create an unprecedented demand for masks. So we’d like to clarify that only those under quarantine and those who came into contact with people tested positive may need to wear them.”
While there is a shortage of masks, Health Secretary Beela Rajesh had on Saturday said that the local civic bodies would provide masks in the areas which are identified as "containment zones" based on the COVID 19 positive cases reported from the locality.
Five kilometres radius from the residence of those who have been tested positive for COVID 19 will be earmarked as containment zone. Another two-kilometer zone around the containment zone will be called the buffer zone.
The containment activities in Chennai will primarily focus on 2500 houses surrounding the affected houses and all houses will be door to door inspected daily, said Corporation Commissioner G Prakash.
“This will be repeated daily to track cases of fever / other symptoms.The areas outside the 2500 houses will be verified by the dbc workers/ health workers door to door once in two days. This will be done for 28 days,’’ he said.
For the containment plan, Chennai Corporation will deploy 2500 domestic breeding checkers, 1500 Anganwadi workers, 750 health nurses, 1500 school teachers would be deployed.
Currently, 19,120 people with travel history have been home quarantined and 1,120 people have completed their 28 days quarantine period.
So far, Tamil Nadu has 50 people tested positive for COVID19 and has entered into Phase 2 of the spread. The containment plan is enforced in order to prevent the spread from entering Phase 3 which is community spread.