Community Intervention Programme to control spread

Chennai

According to G Prakash, Chennai Corporation Commissioner, memorandum of understandings have been signed with 92 NGOs to participate in the programme. “The NGOs will identify aged persons and persons with co-morbidities. They will create awareness on symptoms and on wearing masks,” he said.

Prakash also attributed the lesser number of cases in the slum resettlement areas like Kannagi Nagar, Semmancherry and Ezhil Nagar to the Community Intervention Programme.

A Chennai Corporation press release said that the programme has been launched at the community level in 1,979 densely populated areas. As many as 2,300 outreach workers, who are members of NGOs, have been appointed at those locations.

The outreach workers would enquire the family members about their symptoms and they would assist the civic body in transporting infected persons to hospitals or institutional quarantine centres.

Under the CIP, the civic body had conducted 174 awareness sessions during the last month reaching out to over 1.7 lakh population in the intervention areas. “A range of activities such as street play, puppet show, auto campaign and others were conducted demonstrating hand washing and other prevention methods,” the release added. Also, for every 150 households, one outreach worker is responsible for following the family on a daily basis to detect symptoms.