‘Five clusters contributing to Covid-19 cases in Chennai’ – Times of India

Covid-19 cases in Chennai can be attributed to five main clusters, Greater Chennai Corporation commissioner G Prakash said on Friday.
These are the residents who returned from foreign countries, residents who attended the Tablighi Jamaat function in Delhi, a prayer meet held by residents in Thiru-vi-ka Nagar, the cluster which originated from a media house in Royapuram and the ones from Koyambedu market, Prakash said.
Chennai, on May 1 evening, had 1,082 cases. However, the corporation is yet to release details of the exact number of cases each of these clusters has contributed.
Prakash said the Koyambedu cluster a “challenging one”, given that many vendors, retailers and customers had visited the market till recently, when it was closed for everyone except wholesalers.
Till Thursday, 38 people had tested positive from the Koyambedu cluster in four days.0 All these clusters have not been confined to a particular part of the city and are spread in all areas, said a senior corporation official. All their contacts have also been identified and tested, many of whom are positive.
Prakash said that 19 frontline workers of the civic body have tested positive. More than 35,000 staff including 20,000 conservancy workers, 12,000 survey workers and 3,000 other staff are on the field every day. “We have 10 days’ stock of personal protective equipment (PPE) which we have begun distributing,” he said. Around 6,100 PPEs are used a day.
The commissioner said that with 100 posts of sanitary officers being vacant, many are being overworked. “We are managing with other staff. But we are now going to recruit 500 sanitary officers from institutes such as Gandhigram Rural Institute on temporary basis. Lab technicians will also be recruited,” he said.
Prakash said Tondiarpet, Royapuram and Thiru-vi-ka Nagar will be monitored in greater detail as they had contributed the bulk of cases in the city. “The population density in north Chennai is 50,000-60,000 per sqkm, which is very high. Since people live close by, there is transmission of the virus,” he said.
Disinfection drives have been increased in these areas, he said.
Additional officials from IAS, IPS and revenue departments have been put in charge of these zones to monitor them closely, Prakash said.
The corporation has begun relaxing restriction in zones where there has been no fresh case for 28 days.

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