Homeless in Egmore placed under ‘home’ quarantine as 13 test +ve

In an absurd act, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has covered a portion of pedestrian pavement in Egmore where homeless persons live with metal sheets and pasted home quarantine stickers on it stating that the residents were staying ‘indoors’ voluntarily to prevent COVID-19 spread.

On Saturday, after facing queries from the media, the civic body removed the metal sheets. The civic body had pasted stickers two days ago after 13 homeless persons, most of them living with families, staying on the platform near Egmore railway station tested positive on August 6. All the 13 infected persons, most of them youngsters, were taken to COVID care centres as they did not have any symptoms.

A bus stop located a few meters away from the spot has also been covered on three sides with sheets. As per protocol, the Corporation would block the entrance of houses of infected persons and the family members should stay inside for 14 days. “Soon after the 13 persons were taken to the COVID care centres, officials covered the portion of the pavement with sheets and pasted stickers. Do we have any home to stay under home quarantine,” asked an elderly woman living on the pavement. When DT Next visited the spot in Egmore on Saturday, the family members of the infected persons were seen sitting outside the ‘home’ and were cooking under a tree, though they are expected to stay “inside” till August 20 as per the date mentioned on the quarantine sticker. When asked an assistant engineer about the rationale of covering the pavement, he said the action was taken as per the protocol. “The tin sheets will keep pedestrians away from the spot. We provided masks to the homeless,” he added. Venessa Peter, a policy researcher from the Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities (IRCDUC), opined that the civic body should have offered shelter for the family members of infected persons at a school or a community hall rather than leaving them on the road. “The civic body should devise a separate protocol in handling homeless persons during the pandemic,” she said.

As per the civic body records, only eight homeless persons have tested positive so far.