Faced with a rising number of COVID-19 cases everyday, Coimbatore is all set to intensify screening of residents similar to the strategy adopted by Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC). In order to make this happen, the government of Tamil Nadu recently deputed an IAS officer MA Siddique as the monitoring officer for Coimbatore district in an attempt to rein in the spread of coronavirus. 

As of Friday, Coimbatore has 38,336 persons undergoing treatment for COVID-19, second highest in the state. The number is around 3,000 less than the number of persons being treated for COVID-19 in Chennai. Coimbatore has also consistently reported over 3,500 new cases of COVID-19 every day for the past few days. On some days, it has touched 4,000. Lately, even as the number of fresh cases began to taper down in Chennai, which has so far reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Tamil Nadu, Coimbatore’s daily infections continue to rise. Coimbatore in fact surpassed Chennai in daily cases since May 26.

Speaking to TNM about the COVID-19 situation in Coimbatore Corporation limits, P Kumaravel Pandian, the Commissioner of Coimbatore Municipal Corporation said that the administrative body is working towards controlling the spread of the virus. “Whatever strategy was adopted in Chennai recently, we are going to adopt that in Coimbatore Corporation also,” he said. 

This means that the local body will intensify door to door surveys of residents, ramp up contact tracing of positive patients, make arrangements to increase beds in the limits etc. The Coimbatore Corporation currently has around 3,000 volunteers involved in door to door surveys of residents. GCC has a robust system in place to monitor the health condition of its residents by involving thousands of volunteers in door to door surveillance. These volunteers visit every house, every apartment in their respective localities and note down the health condition of the residents. The GCC also conducts fever camps, free mobile testing facilities and also has arrangements to provide groceries and other essentials at the doorstep of those who have tested positive for the virus. 

Kumaravel Pandian also assured that the Corporation has enough beds to deal with emergencies and is putting in efforts to ramp up the number of beds in its limits. ”Vaccination is being conducted in full swing in the Primary Health Centres (PHCs) in the corporation limits and we have enough beds to deal with any situation.”