CHENNAI: After a 50-year-old woman tested positive for COVID-19 in Chennai’s Broadway area on Monday, the City Corporation believes that she may have contracted it from a family member, who returned from Kerala recently.
Corporation health officials said her 32-year-old son on March 21 returned from Kerala and her 61-year-old husband, an imam with a nearby Mosque are under observation in RGGGH. “Contact tracing has led corporation officials to wonder if she contracted it from her son who recently returned from Kerala,’’ said the official.
Officials said the woman has three sons, while the youngest is not in contact with the family, the middle son, who is an IT employee residing near Thousand Lights is also kept under observation. The test results of the family members are awaited.
The family has been living in the middle floor of a three-story building and the civic body has kept the other families from the building in observation. Officials said that the woman’s husband has not participated in any prayers in the mosque recently but they would still enquire other contacts in local Masjids to find out if there were any large gatherings.
Meanwhile, the street near Beach Station, where the woman has been residing, is locked down. “As of 11:45 am, we have inspected 500 houses and by evening, 2500 houses will be covered totally including the surrounding areas,’’ said the health official.
The houses in this narrow street in North Chennai are stacked up close to each other and officials fear community transmission can be rampant in this area if they don’t contain it.
“This is the first case inside the north Chennai area. We have named this place the ‘Central Sector’ and houses up to Mint will be screened thoroughly,’’ officials added.
Apart from the containment plan, the civic body is disinfecting the area on war footing and have strongly advised people to stay indoors.
All the homeless people in surrounding areas including those on the whole stretch of Rajaji Salai have been quarantined.
The locality of positive case falls under Royapuram Corporation Zone, which is now the first COVID-19 positive case in North Chennai, with the Purasawalkam area, where two cases were recorded, so far being the closest areas