Districts witness crackdown on violators, vaccination at doorsteps

During one such drive, the staff of a coffee shop in Race Course area staged a road block protest after Corporation authorities sealed the shop for violating COVID-19 norms on Monday. The shop remained crowded in violation of 50 per cent occupancy norms stipulated by the government. Shocked at the unexpected move, the staff of the shop squatted blocking road. They claimed that their livelihood will be affected if the shop is shut. 

The Race Course police convinced them to withdraw the protest. Corporation officials said that they levied a fine on the shop two days ago for overcrowding. As they continued to violate the social distancing norms, the shop was sealed. 

Meanwhile, the Corporation ramped up vaccination drive by launching 15 mobile vehicles to vaccinate people at doorsteps. 

“Three vehicles have been dedicated to each of the five zones in the Coimbatore corporation limits. These vehicles will visit industries, commercial establishments, private firms and schools to vaccinate people. The corporation has set a target to vaccinate 10,000 people on a daily basis,” said P Kumaravel Pandian, Corporation Commissioner. 

In Madurai, B Chandra Mohan, District Monitoring Officer for COVID-19 said fever clinics will be conducted extensively in the city. As on Sunday, 193 cases were reported in Madurai and to tackle this, the District Administration along with Madurai Corporation and Department of Police has developed an action plan, which primarily focuses on conducting fever clinics both in urban and rural areas. 

As many as 220 static and mobile fever clinics are being held daily and the number of such clinics will go up said, the Monitoring officer urging the public to use masks properly and follow social distancing. Once people are tested positive, contact tracing programme should be done extensively and adequate field staff are available to execute the task, he added. 

As many as 2,000 beds are available for providing treatment and a 700-bedded COVID care centre has been made functional at MKU hostel by Madurai Collector T Anbalagan. But as of now, it has about 25 per cent occupancy and the rest remain vacant. 

The Vellore district administration started the week long COVID vaccination drive at various locations on Monday. While a total of 325 staff of all banks, including 19 branches of State Bank of India were vaccinated on Monday, vaccination was also undertaken at 6 locations in the town in collaboration with the Vellore regional transport office. The latter drive was undertaken at fuel outlets, bus stands and private bus operators office premises and those vaccinated included bus crews, lorry drivers and people from various walks of life.