The Greater Chennai Corporation is set to deploy 1,500 skilled volunteers, paying them an honorarium for their services, for COVID-19 containment.
The volunteers are expected to play a key role in helping COVID-19 patients who are under home isolation, and are expected to be at work for at least four months in the city.
The volunteers will monitor the health of persons in home isolation, coordinate disinfection of their houses and facilitate initiatives to speed up their recovery. Currently, there is a shortage in the number of employees required to help residents who have been isolated at home after testing positive for COVID-19. This is a major cause of concern in various neighborhoods of the city.
With a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in all 15 zones in the city, the Corporation is not able to mobilise adequate employees for COVID-19 containment and relief.
As a consequence, the civic body has planned to use the services of skilled volunteers, attracting them with a honorarium.
Zones such as Tondiarpet, Royapuram, Kodambakkam, Thiru Vi Ka Nagar, Adyar, Valasaravakkam, Anna Nagar and Teynampet have reported more than 1,000 COVID-19 cases each. Royapuram remains the zone with the highest number of cases in the city. Residents of zones in the added areas, which have reported fewer cases so far, have also tested positive for COVID-19 in the past few days.
More tests
“We are planning to increase testing of people in all the wards. The tests per million is expected to cross 20,000 shortly. Proper isolation of COVID-19 cases in homes remains a challenge. We need more skilled employees to help such isolated residents who have tested positive for COVID-19,” said a Corporation official.
Senior Corporation officials on Friday inspected the testing facilities in various parts of the city.
Residents complained that manpower was inadequate to test persons in many localities. The tests in 40 centres were conducted only for a short duration.
While testing stopped by 3 p.m. at the Corporation centres, it continued till well past 3 p.m. at private labs, a resident pointed out.