In the past few days, after there was no active COVID-19 active case in the district, the Coimbatore Corporation has been conducting test but with a different strategy.
The civic body is at present focussing on areas that are thickly populated – urban slums and areas that have a concentration of workers - and concentrating on people who are vulnerable to the disease, say sources. The vulnerable sections include doctors, paramedical staff, police personnel and other people engaged in combating the spread of COVID-19.
The sources say that the change in strategy is based on the evolving guidelines that the State government gives from time to time and the ground situation in the city.
Earlier, the Corporation took swab samples from people within five-km radius of the affected person’s house. It then narrowed it down to three km and then one and finally, a few days ago, focussed only on the street and immediate neighbourhood of the affected person.
And as days passed by the Corporation did not lift swab samples from all people within the containment zone but from a few (random samples ), those will illness and vulnerable to COVID-19.
It then concentrated on pregnant women and feeding mothers. It also focussed on people visiting hospitals with influenza like illness, severe acute respiratory infection or fever.
Now, given the new strategy the Corporation is lifting close to 200 samples a day from areas within the city. It is also conducting health camps for the vulnerable sections of the population.
