Chennai sees sudden spike in COVID-19 infections; recording over 1,200 cases daily – Times Now

Chennai: Chennai witnessed a sudden spike in the case of coronavirus cases as the city has been recording over 1,200 cases daily for more than one week. Of the 15 corporation zones in the city, 12 have reported a surge in positive cases.

On Sunday, Tamil Nadu’s capital reported 1,348 fresh COVID-19 cases.

In September, Chennai had reported less than 1,000 cases daily for nearly three straight weeks, however, the daily count crossed 1,000 in the last week of the month.

The sudden rise in cases is being attributed to relaxations in lockdown guidelines by officials.

A corporation official was quoted as saying by New Indian Express that the COVID-19 cases are rising as people in the city have been allowed to commute by buses and visit places of worship.

The official also said that lifting restrictions on inter-district travel could have also led to the spike in the cases.

“The entire city is opened for economic activities. People travel by buses and places of worship, restaurants too are allowed to function. So, cases may naturally go up… It is difficult to track the infection spread as several people commute to Chennai now for work on a daily basis,” the official said, adding that people should also follow preventive measures.

Less active cases in Chennai

Of the total coronavirus cases in the city, only 7 per cent are active while the remaining 91 per cent of the patients have been recovered.

The state capital accounted for 1,72,773 out of the total of 6.19 lakh positive cases.

Tamil Nadu on Sunday reported 5,489 fresh COVID-19 cases, pushing the count to 6,19,996. The death toll in the state rose to 9,784 with 66 more people succumbing to the highly-infectious disease.

A total of 5,558 patients discharged from various hospitals yesterday, taking the tally of active cases to 46,120 and recoveries to 5,64,092.