If a Dhaka South City Corporation ward records 10 dengue cases in a week, then a special drive by cleaning staff and mosquito-control workers would be conducted there, Mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh has said.

He said the drive would be conducted every Saturday.

The DSCC mayor came up with the announcement while inspecting work on the destruction of Aedes mosquito breeding grounds at Dhaka University yesterday.

"Next Saturday, we are taking another special drive which will be ward-based. We are declaring the wards as red where more than 10 patients are detected in a week."

He urged locals to clean their homes, establishments, buildings and yards themselves on that day.

"No one should go to work that day. This will be the biggest job," Taposh said.

"We will have cleaners, mosquito control workers and other officials concerned. We will conduct a daylong combing operation to destroy the breeding places of Aedes mosquitoes. Through this, we can control the spread of dengue," he added.

The mayor said that they have already found four wards – ward-5, -22, -53 and -60 -- where 10 dengue patients were detected in the last one week. "We will conduct the special drive in the wards next Saturday," he added.

Asked about marking wards "red", a top official of the DSCC said they actually meant that a special focus would be given to those wards and homeowners and residents would be involved in the drives.

"We want active participation of locals in the drive," the official said wishing not to be named.