Coronavirus in Chennai: Latest updates from your locked-down city – Times of India

Amid prevalent chaos and uncertainty over access to essential services following the lockdown, we bring you the latest updates from Chennai. Stay tuned to TOI for all live updates.
6pm: Fire and rescue personnel spray disinfectan at Kannagi nagar in Chennai

3.28pm: Tamil Nadu government requests public to donate to CM’s public relief fund to take up preventive measures against coronavirus.
2.45pm: “On the account of lockdown, new recruits – 500 doctors and 1,508 lab technicians – have been appointed in their respective local areas. Tamil Nadu will add 200 more ambulances to its fleet immediately,” says health minister C Vijayabaskar said.
12.20pm: Six new positive cases of Covid-19 in Tamil Nadu, says health minister C Vijaya Baskar.
12.15pm: Prices of vegetables dropped and traders sold greens at discounted prices to clear the stock. While at least five tonnes of perishable vegetables wasted because the market declared holiday for two days on Friday and Saturday, traders kept the market opened on Friday to clear the stock of about 4,000 tonnes.
12.10pm: Koyambedu wholesale market in Chennai continues to function on Friday.
11.45am: PM Narendra Modi calls Tamil Nadu chief minister to take stock of the preventive measures being taken against the spread of coronavirus. Modi told the CM to strictly enforce prohibitory orders and ensure smooth flow of essential commodities.
10.32am: Around 24,000 home quarantine stickers have been pasted by Greater Chennai Corporation outside the city homes. Each house may have one or more suspect in quarantine: Greater Chennai corporation commissioner G Prakash.
10.20am: About 14,291 conservancy workers have reported for sanitation work in Chennai. Greater Chennai Corporation says only around 1,900 are absent, of which 1,013 are on authorised leave.
* 9 panels to ensure nonstop supply of essential commodities
The chief minister has ordered setting up of nine committees led by senior bureaucrats to ensure uninterrupted supply of essentials and resolve disruptions in the state.
* The state invoked provisions of the Disaster Management Act superseding its previous notification under the Epidemic Act, and issued a notification for the on-going 21-day lockdown called by the Centre. As per the DM Act, anyone refusing to comply with any government direction will get a jail term of one year or fine, or both.
* Keeping people off roads stressful for law enforcers
Preventing people from venturing out for non-essential activities has become a big challenge for police personnel in these stressful times. Despite instructions and advisories, people continued to be on to the streets, with most saying they were going to a ‘medical store.’ On Thursday, 14 bikes and three cars were impounded at the Spencer Plaza traffic signal on Anna Salai for violating the prohibitory order under Section 144, a police officer said, adding that they would initiate further action based on the senior officer’s direction.
* Now, drones to spray disinfectants
The Greater Chennai Corporation on Thursday tested drones, provided by Anna University, for spraying disinfectant. The testing was done at Ripon Buildings, the headquarters of the civic body. The GCC commissioner G Prakash said four drones would be used to spray disinfectants in areas like markets and crowded localities including slum tenements to prevent spread of Covid-19. Each drone can spray disinfectants in a 50,000-square-foot area.
* CCTV cameras help police in spotting crowds
It is not just in solving cases of crime that the electronic eye has been helping police. Officers tasked with monitoring the unnecessary movement of people on the roads during the lockdown period and enforcing prohibitory orders under Section 144 as part of it are finding it easy thanks to CCTV cameras at ATM kiosks, banks and jewellery shops among others.

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