Corona upsurge: Chennaiites cope with isolation as scare partially shuts

Over the last few days, there have been drastic changes in the city’s social life owing to the preventive measures being put in place by the government, offices and other commercial establishments for fear of an outbreak of COVID-19. From eating outside to visiting parks, working from home to food delivery, the general public are trying to cope with the sudden changes brought about in their routine even as scare prowls the city following the confirmation of another positive case of the deadly virus.

Following an announcement by the Greater Chennai Corporation, GCC parks will be shut down until further notice as a precautionary measure against the spread of coronavirus. At Anna Nagar Tower Park, a poster was stuck on the gates informing the public of this.

According to a shopkeeper near the park, this notice was put up two days ago. “All the regular visitors came, saw the notice, and then went back. There has been some regular cleaning works happening in the park, but apart from that, nobody has come here,” he said.

Interestingly, with gyms and parks closed, Chennaiites are turning to the beaches to stay fit. Residents near Elliots, Thiruvanmiyur and Palavakkam beaches said that the number of walkers in the evenings has gone up and claimed it is due to the shutting down of parks and gyms in tandem.

As for Marina Beach, the stretch remained empty when DT Next visited it. Apart from a few stalls, most had closed for the time being. “Entry to the beach is also being restricted somewhat. Some people come in the evenings, but that number is also very small. Most of the visitors are wearing masks these days,” said U Thangam, a fruit vendor on the beach.

Many local companies have taken measures to allow employees to work from home in light of preventing any spread of the disease. However, this is a mixed bag, with some working professionals claiming that working from home is not productive.

“It is difficult to be productive when sitting at home. There are many distractions and home matters to attend to over the course of the day. We are still expected to work as if we are at the office. So we must attend all calls and emails immediately, but this is becoming difficult. It could be easy for those working in coding or data compilation, but not for others,” said Aravind, an IT professional.

Others working in the service sector are faced with the issue that most services have come to a halt. “I work with an events management company, and we have been asked to work from home. All our events have been cancelled, and so there is nothing to do even at home. The nature of event management is that there is no point in doing business from home as we need to be on the site,” said Murugan, a producer at an eventsmanagement company.

Despite more people staying indoors due to social isolation or work from home arrangements, the number of food deliveries has remained the same, according to one delivery executive with a food delivery app. However, other delivery executives claimed that the number of deliveries has come down, which they explain is due to fear of contamination through food. “But we haven’tbeen given any masks. If we are to wear masks, we must buy them ourselves. It is expensive and difficult to get them, so we are continuing working without them,” said an executive on the conditionof anonymity.

Several restaurants in the city have closed outlet operations, opting instead for only delivery services. “As per the Tamil Nadu government’s instructions to control COVID-19 outbreak through transmission, Kora Food Street shall be operating through online orders and limited fine dining only until further notice. The Kora Food Street Team are constantly being screened and have been trained in the best practices to avoid contracting and spreading the viral infection,” read a notice by the Kora Food Street management in Anna Nagar.

Those who had initially decided to travel out of the city are now cancelling their tickets for fear of their health. A customer email from IndiGo read, “Incoming emails and calls have spiked five times in volume in the last few days. To address this unprecedented surge in volume, we have requested our teams in customer relations to work six days a week instead of five and are moving many airport staff into our customer relations department. Our call centres are spread across three locations, Gurgaon, Pune and Chennai, and they are working round the clock to serve our customers.”