Although the district administration has been fighting tooth and nail to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the market area in the heart of Vellore city has turned into another Koyambedu-like cluster contributing 200 cases to the district's tally.
Attracting a large number of retail traders and customers from several parts of the region, Nethaji Market, Mandi Street, Laang Bazaar, Sunnambukara Street and the surrounding areas were subjected to severe restrictions even before the pandemic began to ring alarms bells.
Ignoring the objections raised by a section of traders, district collector A Shanmuga Sundaram ordered the closure of the retail trade at Nethaji Market in a bid to declutter one of the largest market complexes in the region.
However, the strenuous efforts of the district administration seem to have been frittered away with the contagion spreading its tentacles. It began with a lemon trader but others did not contract the virus in the initial stages.
However, the recent infection of a father-son duo engaged in wholesale rice trade on Mandi Street was the trigger.
“As many as 2000 traders, labourers, and their family members were tested. Of them, 200 have tested positive and results of 270 are awaited while the remaining persons were found to be negative,” Dr S Chitrasena, City Health Officer, told The New Indian Express.
All the markets have been relocated from 20 to 30 June to keep the locality clean and avoid further transmission of the virus.
Frontline warriors in the fight against the pandemic stated that they have completed a thorough tracing of the contacts of the traders and labourers to test them for the infection.
“We have done a comprehensive tracing of contacts and tested them, besides putting close contacts under home quarantine,” explained T Manivannan, Deputy Director of Health Services, Vellore.
Apart from the market area, other places including Saidapet, Kagithapattarai, Kaspa and RN Palayam have reported several cases. Places surrounding the CMC Hospital too have become a hotspot, officials pointed out.
The authorities of Vellore City Municipal Corporation (VCMC) are battling to bring the virus under control. Sixty grassroots level teams -- one each for the sixty wards in its jurisdictional areas -- have been formed to hold surveillance activities.
“In order to hold pandemic surveillance in the places where cases have been reported, we have constituted 60 teams,” said N Sankaran, Commissioner of VCMC.
The teams consist of domestic breeding checkers (DBC), Anganwadi employee, volunteers, bill collectors and conservancy supervisors.
Sankaran noted, “They carry out clean-up activities thrice a day at streets in infected places, restrict movement of people outside their houses and check them for fever.”