With Chennai witnessing the second wave of the Coronavirus pandemic, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has roped in 10 FOCUS (Friends of Covid Persons Under Surveillance) volunteers have been deployed in each division. Their responsibilities include monitoring patients under home isolation, helping them with daily needs, distributing kabasura kudineer and clarify queries regarding vaccines.
Along with the volunteers, each division-level team monitoring the pandemic in Chennai includes sanitary inspectors, assessors, conservancy inspectors and police sub-inspectors.
The corporation has formed several zonal-level coordination teams headed by the Zonal Officers for COVID containment and safety measures. Executive engineers, health officers, assistant revenue officers, veterinary surgeons, entomologists, metro water area engineers and police assistant commissioners are part of this team.
Read more: The second wave: All about the latest COVID testing, containment and vaccination protocol in Chennai
The control rooms in 15 zones will also resume operations, focusing on tracing the contacts of COVID patients. Authorities involved in COVID duty are being trained to do contact tracing.
A fever clinic has been set up for every two wards and across the city there are 100 fever camps being conducted every day. The number of fever clinics will be increased to 400 in the upcoming days.
Source: The Times of India | The New Indian Express
Poor mask compliance in Chennai: Study
A survey by the National Institute of Epidemiology revealed that less than a quarter of people in Chennai wore masks in line with the mandated COVID-19 safety norms. The scientists observed 3,200 individuals outdoors and 1,280 individuals indoors from 64 select streets in Chennai between March 20 and 26. The study states that at least 67% of participants from slum areas and 58% in non-slum areas did not wear a mask in an indoor setting such as commercial spaces.
This is the third study that looked into mask compliance in Chennai. Director of Tamil Nadu Health and Family Welfare Department, T S Selvavinayagam stated that stricter enforcement of masking is needed to bring down the epidemic curve in Chennai.
Source: The Times of India
Chennai gets grant to develop urban services
In a bid to improve the quality, ability and resilience of urban services in Chennai, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) will grant $150 million to execute Chennai City Partnership: Sustainable Urban Services Program, aided by the World Bank.
Some of the urban services that will be boosted by the funding are resource management, water supply and sewerage, urban mobility, solid waste management and public health. Besides urban services, the project will also look at strengthening governance and government agencies for unified, resilient delivery service.
The managing agency of the project is Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Development Board (TNIDB). TNIDB will grant financial and technical support to the executing agencies at the metropolitan and urban local bodies in Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA) limits.
Source: The New Indian Express
Wimco Nagar metro depot to be ready by August
The metro rail depot at Wimco Nagar, which is under construction on a 48,000 sq. m plot will be completed by August. The depot will also have the infrastructure to maintain and service metro trains and space enough to build a 20-storey complex.
Read more: Why persons with disability are unhappy with Chennai Metro
It is to be noted that the construction work for the depot was kickstarted along with the 9-km Phase 1 extension line from Washermanpet to Wimco Nagar project. While the depot will be spread over 15,500 sq m, it will also have an auto coach washing plant with three levels for property development on 1,055 sq. m land. A four-level car parking facility below the elevated depot and 20-storeyed residential or commercial complex will be developed in the remaining plot.
Source: The Times of India
[Compiled by Bhavani Prabhakar]
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Sir, All articles are very useful and up-to-date. All the bestV.Ramschandran