The Greater Chennai Corporation has intensified dengue prevention measures, with the deployment of 3,323 personnel across all the zones for door-to-door checks, officials said.
The focus on mosquito control and related dengue prevention measures have been increased proactively, instead of strengthening such activities after the outbreak of the disease, officials said. They added that Zika virus cases reported in Kerala were also a reason for intensifying such precautionary measures.
Apart from surveillance for COVID-19, the fever survey workers have been asked to enquire about stagnation of water inside the households, which could end up becoming breeding grounds for dengue-causing Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes, which also cause the Zika virus disease, chikungunya and yellow fever. Corporation Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi said that the workers had been asked to create awareness in each and every household they visited.
“A particular area of concern is the tray on the backside of most refrigerators where water accumulates. It can be a breeding ground for dengue-causing mosquitoes,” he said.
Mr. Bedi said that on Monday alone, workers found 1,865 households with such water stagnation behind refrigerators, which were subsequently cleared.
Fogging increased
He added that fogging had also been intensified, with 602 locations covered on Monday alone.
“Reports on the number of households covered, number of locations where fogging was done and other such details are monitored on a daily basis,” he said.
Apart from these, the Corporation has launched an initiative to spray anti-larval chemicals along canals with the help of drones. As the dengue-causing mosquitoes breed only in clean water, officials said this initiative was to prevent breeding of other types of mosquitoes, which cause diseases like malaria.