Number of fever survey workers to be cut by 1/3rd

“The GCC has been implementing house to house survey as one of the key strategies for the control of COVID-19. These workers have been visiting the houses regularly and finding the ILI (influenza-like illness) cases early. COVID samples have been taken and the positive cases have been followed up by these workers. In addition to that, the FSWs are being used for other COVID-related activities. Currently, 5,527 workers are working for fever surveillance,” a Chennai Corporation special council resolution said.

The resolution added that for the past few weeks, the number of cases has been consistently low and it is maintained below 200 per day. The sustained low number of cases necessitated the change in strategy as the ILI surveillance could be done through the facilities and the number of workers can be reduced, as per the resolution.

“However the workers are being used for other activities. The fever survey workers could be renamed as ‘multipurpose COVID workers’. They may be used for sample collection, RT-PCR entry, follow-up of cases and vaccination,” the resolution said.

The civic body estimates 1,400 workers to be retained to carry out the COVID-19 related works. All the core city zones have been allotted more than 100 workers. The 1,400 workers include 14 workers, who will be deployed at Secretariat and Koyambedu market.

The retrenchment will be carried out based on the scoring of the workers’ performance. The workers who have high scores will be retained as per the requirement.

The workers will be ranked as per their attendance, ILI identification, positive case home monitoring, NCD (Non-Communicable Disease) case identification and proper register maintenance. Each will have 10 marks.