The Greater Chennai Corporation will conduct training sessions for sanitary inspectors in 50% of the 200 wards to strengthen COVID-19 containment activities.
A number of young sanitary inspectors, appointed amid the pandemic to fill vacancies in the Public Health Department, had not been able to implement containment measures properly, officials said.
Corporation Commissioner G. Prakash directed the Health Department to conduct training sessions for such staff to help them understand the issues pertaining to COVID-19 containment in the city.
Initially, over 100 sanitary inspectors were hired on a contractual basis for three months. Later, the civic body hired a private agency to engage the services of sanitary inspectors for a year to carry out containment activities in all 200 wards during the pandemic.
Lapses in measures
But most of the young inspectors had not been able to implement containment measures efficiently, leading to gaps in screening, isolation and treatment of patients, sources said. Patient management in several zones was also affected, primarily because of inexperienced sanitary inspectors who were unable to coordinate with other agencies and departments on containment activities.
The Corporation is also planning to study the role of inexperienced sanitary inspectors in the rise in the number of COVID-19 deaths in some zones, including Teynampet, Anna Nagar, Adyar and Kodambakkam.
Many wards have reported a case fatality rate of over 2.3%.
Over 25 sanitary inspectors, eight sanitary officers and four assistant health officers have tested positive for the infection so far. A number of sanitary inspectors, who had worked in Chennai on deputation from other districts, had returned to their native places after testing positive, sources said.
Residents had complained about the poor response to civic issues during the pandemic in many of the wards manned by inexperienced sanitary inspectors. Many of the new recruits were unable to interact with the public during emergency situations related to the pandemic. “Some young sanitary inspectors are ignorant. Others are arrogant. This affects the COVID-19 response,” former Corporation floor leader V. Sukumar Babu said.