Positivity rate in central zones higher than rest of Chennai

"The positivity rate in the city is between 10 to 12 per cent. However, the four zones in central Chennai has 20 to 22 per cent positivity rate," Prakash said while inaugurating the distribution of Rs 1,000 assistance to persons with disabilities in the city.

He added that a portal has been created for the use of officials in which street-wise and division-wise cases are being updated. This data is used to devise containment plans. Around 60 per cent of new cases reported in the city are from the four zones.

Prakash added that the civic body would collect the details of all the persons with disabilities in the city before the end of this month to create a database.

"The database will be useful for the government to roll out special schemes for such persons. As of now, we have identified around 60,000 persons with disabilities possessing national disability identity cards. Cash benefit will be given to all the persons having the identity cards," he added.

Also, the civic body had distributed Rs 1,000 to each of 14,663 street vendors in the city based on a State government order. It may be noted that the city body had already identified around 38,000 street vendors and several vendors are thought to be left for their native districts. "Cash benefit will be given to them when they return to the city."

When asked Prakash, whether the complete lockdown on Sundays serves its purpose, he explained that complete lockdown has been implemented as people would go out in large numbers on Sundays.

"The complete lockdown is helping in slowing down the spread," he said.