CHENNAI: The Chennai corporation is set to reintroduce stricter containment initiatives in areas where there are clusters or emerging clusters of COVID-19 cases.
According to senior corporation officials, in streets with a large number of COVID-positive residents, the earlier containment strategy would be followed where movement would be restricted. The entry points would be cordoned off, while corporation and police staff would be deputed to maintain records of those leaving and returning to the containment zones. The process is set to start as soon as possible, said officials.
However, wherever there are a fewer number of cases, the homes of residents with COVID-19 will be treated as containment units without affecting the streets, a senior corporation official told The New Indian Express.
Corporation Commissioner G Prakash has been inspecting COVID care centres in the city. "The COVID care centres will be brought to life by Monday and we will be ready with 12,000 beds in the coming week," he told The New Indian Express.
Meanwhile, the civic body restarted door-to-door fever surveillance from Thursday. The exercise was put on hold during the election season since corporation officials feared the volunteers might be used for political propaganda.
"We had recalled those who had been working with us earlier because we already have their bank accounts. Some had gone on to other jobs and some did not turn up. This week we are going to continue the exercise with whoever is there. We are expecting more people to turn up from next week," a corporation health official told The New Indian Express.
Each volunteer has been assigned 10-15 streets and will visit houses every alternate day.
While earlier, they mainly looked for symptoms like fever and cough, now the city corporation officials have asked volunteers to check for eight symptoms including headache, myalgia (muscle pain) and diarrhea.
"A lot of cases we get now are asymptomatic and don't have fever, so we have expanded the list of symptoms to check for to eight so that no cases are missed out," the official added.