CHENNAI: Emerging clusters – contacts of frontline workers – are Chennai’s biggest challenge in the battle against Covid-19. The map in the civic body Covid-19 control room has red circles over some city hospitals, market areas, and congested neighbourhoods. “For every person testing positive in the city, we have a contact list of at least 30 people. All of them are tracked, quarantined and tested,” said deputy commissioner, health, Madhusudhan Reddy. “We have the highest contact index because this city is densely populated. The virus is highly infectious so more people are testing positive,” he said.
On Wednesday, four members of a family that runs a provision store in Mandaveli tested positive, a day after the store owner tested positive. Zonal health officials said the owner visited Koyamebedu market every day to buy vegetables and fruits. “The market complex is one of the biggest sources of infection for the city,” Reddy said.
Health workers have made door-to-door visits in Mandaveli asking people who visited the store to remain in quarantine and contact health officials if they have symptoms of the disease. In the same neighbourhood, a pharmacist, who works in a corporation urban primary health care centre tested positive on Wednesday. Officials have taken samples from a dozen of his contacts.
At Meenambalpuram in Mylapore, a housekeeping staff infected nearly a dozen people in the containment zone. Officials said that contact tracing is still underway in the area. The housekeeping staff got the infection from a doctor at a hospital where she was employed. Expert blame the spike in cases on indiscipline, negligence and gross violation of lockdown rules by both authorities and public. “Crowding was not contained in market areas and people believed they were on a holiday,” said former city health officer P Kuganandam. “Buying vegetables and groceries should not be a daily chore. This is epidemic time and we should learn to live in it,” he said.
Ambattur zone (zone 7), which had zero cases since the lockdown was announced recorded its first case on April 21- the employee of a private television channel. Within a week, Ambattur zone recorded 19 positive cases, most infected by a vegetable vendor from Padi kuppam, who used to run a shop at Koyambedu market. More than a dozen of his contacts have tested positive so far, officials said. Besides, there have been public gatherings violating lockdowns. If it was a prayer meeting in Asirvadhapuram that left 25 people infected, a birthday party left a woman, her fiv-day-old child and ten others infected in St. Thomas Mount area. On Tuesday, about half of 34 positive cases reported in Chennai zone were from the prayer meet and 10 out of 12 cases in Chengalpattu were part of the birthday celebrations.
On Wednesday, four members of a family that runs a provision store in Mandaveli tested positive, a day after the store owner tested positive. Zonal health officials said the owner visited Koyamebedu market every day to buy vegetables and fruits. “The market complex is one of the biggest sources of infection for the city,” Reddy said.
Health workers have made door-to-door visits in Mandaveli asking people who visited the store to remain in quarantine and contact health officials if they have symptoms of the disease. In the same neighbourhood, a pharmacist, who works in a corporation urban primary health care centre tested positive on Wednesday. Officials have taken samples from a dozen of his contacts.
At Meenambalpuram in Mylapore, a housekeeping staff infected nearly a dozen people in the containment zone. Officials said that contact tracing is still underway in the area. The housekeeping staff got the infection from a doctor at a hospital where she was employed. Expert blame the spike in cases on indiscipline, negligence and gross violation of lockdown rules by both authorities and public. “Crowding was not contained in market areas and people believed they were on a holiday,” said former city health officer P Kuganandam. “Buying vegetables and groceries should not be a daily chore. This is epidemic time and we should learn to live in it,” he said.
Ambattur zone (zone 7), which had zero cases since the lockdown was announced recorded its first case on April 21- the employee of a private television channel. Within a week, Ambattur zone recorded 19 positive cases, most infected by a vegetable vendor from Padi kuppam, who used to run a shop at Koyambedu market. More than a dozen of his contacts have tested positive so far, officials said. Besides, there have been public gatherings violating lockdowns. If it was a prayer meeting in Asirvadhapuram that left 25 people infected, a birthday party left a woman, her fiv-day-old child and ten others infected in St. Thomas Mount area. On Tuesday, about half of 34 positive cases reported in Chennai zone were from the prayer meet and 10 out of 12 cases in Chengalpattu were part of the birthday celebrations.
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