With only a fortnight or so left for the southwest monsoon season, it is time for the city to brace up to fight another battle – against dengue.

Usually, ahead of June, the Coimbatore Corporation asks the city’s residents to keep their surroundings clean, destroy old, unused items and trash that could turn mosquito breeding sources and marshals its domestic breeding checkers and other staff in the health department.

But this year is different as the Corporation is already stretched, what with the fight against COVID-19 eating away its resources and demanding full-time dedication of its workforce.

Sources in the Corporation say that after the first monsoon rain, the domestic mosquito breeding checkers – there are 800 of them – go door-to-door to check for breeding sources. They check both inside and around the houses to destroy breeding sources and urge the residents to clean the bottom of their refrigerators, sunshades, etc.

This time, though, with the Corporation diverting all its checkers to fight COVID-19, it will be difficult for the Corporation to send them to fight dengue.

Even if the Corporation were to send the checkers, they may be reluctant to enter homes or commercial establishments and the occupants too may find it difficult to let them in, given the COVID-19 scare and the need to maintain personal distancing.

Likewise, the Corporation workers will not go to every household to pour chemicals into water containers to prevent mosquito breeding. Nor will they go around every house destroying unsafe water containers. Therefore, the best way for the city’s residents to keep themselves safe from dengue is to keep their surroundings clean and only they can do it.

The Corporation, at best, can only fog and it will do so, the sources say.

The city usually sees a spike in dengue cases, after a dip during summer. In 2018, the number of dengue cases was four in June and 15 in July. In 2019, the city saw five dengue cases in June and 27 in July.

A senior health officer says the city’s residents should put to use in the next few months the lessons they have learnt during the COVID-19 lockdown period – keeping their surroundings clean and taking responsibility for it. The Corporation can and will play only a supportive role, he adds.