155 North Chennai put together as Containment Areas
Perhaps the North chennai region has been in focus since the very beginning of the epidemic in Tamilnadu. The whole of North chennai put together has 155 containment areas, which is only marginally higher than Central chennai, and 542 COVID-19 cases as of May 5. The neighbourhood of Royapuram in the city’s north has seen several positive cases crop up over the past few weeks and was one of the very first hotspots. At present, there 83 containment zones in Royapuram (zone five) with a total of 301 cases. “The slum areas of Royapuram are particularly affected with 12-13 cases in some streets,” said Royapuram COVID-19 zone officer Manoharan.
Some have worked as domestic help in the houses of positive patients, others are staying in the same complex as those tested positive. This way the virus has spread.” The zonal officers are also looking at possible emerging cases from the Koyambedu market cluster. Among Central chennai zones, the spotlight has been on Thiru Vi Ka nagar (zone six) since the very beginning with patients tracing their source of infection to the single source event. Central chennai itself has 149 containment areas with 1,219 COVID-19 cases in total as of May 5.
As of april 30, this zone had 210 cases and the number has only been increasing by 50 on an average every day. Speaking to TNM, PN sridhar, Regional Deputy Commissioner (RDC), Central chennai says, “In Thiru Vi Ka nagar itself, two main streets have the most number of cases - Mothilal Street and Thattakulam. Both are in ward 77 that has the maximum number of cases in the city.” Earlier this week, at least 160 cases were from this ward. RDC explains that the source of infection was from a single patient who had returned after visiting Rajiv gandhi government General Hospital (RGGGH) for regular treatment earlier in April. “The area itself is tightly packed and this is the reason why it spread within the containment area. Even though we had barricaded the street, the close proximity of houses made it difficult to stop the spread inside the containment area,” he explains.