CHENNAI: About 15 Central Industrial Security Force Personnel (CISF) in Chennai, who returned from election duty in Bihar, tested positive for Covid-19 on November 12.
Corporation officials said that the CISF personnel reside at the Madras Port Trust Housing Colony in Zone 4 (Tondiarpet) and had gone for election duty in Bihar few months ago.
“About 64 of them returned from election duty back to the city last week and in that 42 people gave Covid tests. Among them, 15 have tested positive,” a Corporation official told The New Indian Express.
The official said that all the people who are positive have been admitted to the City Corporation’s Communicable Diseases Hospital and currently, they are asymptomatic.
“The rest of those who gave tests have quarantined themselves at the Port Trust quarters itself. We are continuously monitoring and attending to the needs of the personnel,” the official said, pointing out that the remaining personnel have gone on leave.
Officials said that the personnel returned by train and regular temperature checks were being done at the railway stations as well.
“Tondiarpet zone has just 84 active cases which is one percent. We are testing and screening round-the-clock,” the official said.
The city so far has not had any clusters recently and for the first time in many months, Chennai recorded less than 500 cases on Monday.
Active cases in the city is now only 2 percent, while a high of 96 percent have been discharged.
Health Secretary Dr J Radhakrishnan said that the civic authorities must focus on identifying pre-emerging hotspots and clusters.