Chennai steps-up efforts to contain COVID-19 spread

As the ‘strict’ lockdown entered its second day, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) on Saturday intensified its efforts to contain further spread of the coronavirus by screening all residents of the metropolis for any COVID-19 symptoms.

Armed with Infra-Red Thermal Scanners and pulse oximeters that helps check the oxygen levels of a person, over 12,000 field workers will fan out across the city for the next two weeks to identify people with COVID-19 symptoms like fever, sore throat and cough. The lockdown that began on June 19 will be in force till June 30.

While 10,000 Infra-Red Thermal Scanners have been given to field workers, the pulse oximeters have been given in the first phase only to those carrying out the screening process in three zones of the GCC – Royapuram, Tondiarpet, and Thiru Vi. Ka. Nagar – which alone accounted for 14,206 of the total 38,327 cases in the city as on Friday.

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“The field workers will visit every household in the city and enquire with people about their health status and whether they have any symptoms. Checking of body temperature has been made mandatory by the field workers who will use the thermal scanners for the purpose,” a senior GCC official told DH.

If the field workers identify people with influenza like illness (ILI) or suspect that they have COVID-19 symptoms, they will be referred to a health care professional who will examine them further and send them for testing, the official said.

Additionally, the GCC is also conducting 600 fever camps across the city to identify people with ILI and those possessing COVID-19 symptoms. “Over 30,000 to 40,000 people are screened everyday at these fever centers as people come in large numbers to get themselves checked. We hope these measures will help us contain the spread of the virus,” the official said.

Welcoming the move to intensify the screening process, experts said the government should utilise the “strict” lockdown period to ramp up testing by identifying symptomatic people and testing them. “It is easy to identify symptomatic people and those vulnerable to the virus and test them. The government should use the lockdown to test more people and regulate the people on barrier methods like wearing of masks and washing hands,” P Kuganantham, senior epidemiologist and former Chennai City Health Officer, told DH.

He added that maximising tests during the period would help contain the spread of the virus. “We need to see how the lockdown helps in the containment efforts,” Dr. Kuganantham added. Another expert, who did not wish to be named, said the government should test more than 10,000 people in Chennai everyday to identify more COVID-19 cases and isolate them.