CHENNAI BUZZ

City prepares for the third wave With the third wave of the pandemic being predicted, the civic body has set a target to vaccinate 8 lakh persons with comorbidities.  After holding a meeting with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the civic body has decided to focus on vulnerable population with comorbidities and tuberculosis patients and pregnant mothers. The corporation has collected data about vulnerable residents and would help them get all assistance at the divisional level.  In view of the third wave, the civic body also plans to start increasing ICU beds and other infrastructure. Additionally, in a…

Conservancy workers stage protest, demand regulating their jobs Conservancy workers hired on contract through the National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM) organised a demonstration in Ambattur demanding regularisation of their jobs. As their contract is set to end by mid-July, the conservancy workers sought immediate intervention from the state government.  According to the worker’s union, Uzhaippor Urimai Iyakkam (UUI), in an ongoing case, the Madras High Court had ordered the civic body to not discontinue their contract for three months. With the three-month timeframe having already expired, the workers are concerned about their livelihoods as the legal hearing has not taken…

Post-COVID care centre at Guindy hospital To cater to the needs of those dealing with post-COVID issues, the state government has set up a post-COVID care clinic at the Government Corona Hospital in Guindy. Some of the services offered by the clinic are general medicine, cardiology, neurology, nephrology, gastroenterology, ENT, ophthalmology, diabetology, chest medicine and psychiatry. An ENT specialist has also been stationed to screen patients for any signs of mucormycosis. A 100-bed pediatric COVID ward and a 40-bedded intensive care unit has also been inaugurated at Stanley Medical College & Hospital’s Institute of Social Paediatrics in order to deal…

Corporation website for vaccine slots In a bid to boost the vaccination campaign, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has rolled out a website for Chennaiites to book vaccination slots. People may choose one of the centres in the zone they belong to and pick a time slot for their jab.  The website has also clarified that this does not bypass the CoWin booking. The site is only to secure slots in the vaccination centre. A separate CoWin booking will be done in the vaccination centre by the officials. Besides the website, residents can also register by dialling 044-4612 2300 or…

Corporation adopts a multipronged strategy to combat COVID With the possibility of a third wave of COVID-19 being predicted, the Greater Chennai Corporation plans to scale up the number of ICU beds and keep them ready at community health centres across the city. This move comes after a series of meetings held with experts and epidemiologists.  The corporation plans to increase the number of available ICU beds in phases. In the first phase, a minimum of 15 hospitals attached to the civic body will get ICU beds. The expert team also suggested the genomic surveillance of COVID-19 samples for containing…

COVID: Corporation vaccinates traders, post-COVID follow-up initiated In a bid to prevent the Wholesale Market Complex at Koyambedu from becoming a COVID hotspot once again, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has vaccinated 239 traders, workers and others as on June 10th.  With the second wave of the pandemic subsiding, the number of containment zones has decreased in Chennai and is currently less than 100. By June 7th, the number of containment zones fell down to 81 from 365 a month ago at the height of the second wave.  The civic body has initiated post-COVID follow-up care for recovered residents of…

COVID: Government mulls phased unlock, sero-survey to be conducted Following the two-week strict lockdown to bring down the COVID spread, the state government mulls over phased unlock. The number of cases in the city has almost halved in this time, with the measures working to control the spread. Data from the civic body shows that there is an active reduction in the number of containment zones in Chennai in just a week. A street is marked as a containment zone if it has more than 10 active COVID cases. On May 31st, there were 365 containment zones whereas, on May…

COVID-19: Lockdown extended, TPR decreases Over the past few days, Chennai has witnessed a downward trend in the total number of new COVID-19 cases in the city. On May 26th, the test positivity rate (TPR) stood at 12.1%. To bring down the numbers further, the Tamil Nadu government has extended the total lockdown till June 7th. In a bid to vaccinate people with disabilities, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has initiated special camps and door-step services. As on May 27th, 118 persons with disabilities have been inoculated in Chennai. The home visits enable those who cannot visit the centres to…

Black Fungus declared as notifiable disease The state government announced that mucormycosis (also known as black fungus) infection as a notifiable disease under the Epidemic Act. The actual count of the disease reported in the state will be accounted for once the private hospitals notify the disease to the Director of Public Health. No deaths have been reported in the state as a result of black fungus. Seven patients have had their vision affected by the fungus. Six cases have been treated at the Government Ophthalmic Hospital, Egmore. Sankara Nethralaya, a Chennai-based hospital, has seen 13 cases of black fungus…

Corporation's new strategy for COVID patients To curb the spread of COVID, the civic body has begun distributing basic medical kits for people undergoing RT-PCR tests. In the new approach that the corporation has taken, the test results would be communicated through the civic body medical teams who will make home visits to determine the course of treatment. The demand for oxygen beds has gone up in recent times in the city due to which the civic body has taken a decision to install oxygen concentrators at Covid Care Centres (CCC) to treat patients with mild symptoms. The number of…