The Greater Chennai Corporation has, on Saturday, sealed off a children's home in Tondiarpet after it has suddenly emerged as a COVID-19 hotspot, amid surging cases in the city. 

Tondiarpet is one of the active hotspots in the city and 19 children had tested positive for the virus on Thursday whereas 15 others were confirmed to have contracted to the virus on Friday, leaving the corporation to seal off the home and to accommodate the affected children in the hospitals and quarantine centers across the city.

According to the reports, all 81 children, including the affected, have been put up in the hospitals and quarantine centers. The home has reported the first case on May 30 where a boy was tested positive for the pandemic. It was then identified that he came in contact with a caretaker of the home who had carried positive symptoms for the virus. 

After getting alerted, the authorities had collected the samples of all the children and staff of the home following which 19 children were tested positive on Thursday and 15 others including three teachers had tested positive the following day and the home has been closed. The reports say that the home has been getting disinfected daily and the sudden emergence of cases had let the authorities with more challenges. 

Tondiarpet zone has eleven other homes and the authorities are checking these homes every day to ascertain whether these homes have become carriers and they advised the caretakers of the homes to make sure that they won't come under direct contact of people from outside. Of these children, 33 are under quarantine in a school, 13 have been kept under the hospital quarantine with mild symptoms and they tested negative.

34 positive children have been kept in the Communicable Diseases Hospital in Tondiarpet and one child has been under isolation at the Chennai Trade center in Nandanam. Corporation Commissioner Prakash said that the authorities have started testing processes in the remaining homes including the homes that have elder people.

He added that the corporation has deployed surveillance workers and they would check in homes every day and the symptomatic people would put through COVID-19 testing. According to the corporation, Tondiarpet - Zone 4 has reported 2646 positive cases so far as of Sunday morning, which is the second-highest in the city after Royapuram, which has reported 3717 cases.