Chennai: Covid doubling time up, viral spread slows down – Times of India

CHENNAI: At a time when Chennai continues to record more than 1,200 Covid-19 cases a day, a key statistic shows that the spread of the infection in the city has slowed down.

The doubling time, the number of days taken for Covid cases to double, has shown a positive trend as compared to August, official data from Greater Chennai Corporation shows. For instance, the case doubling rate on August 3 was 63.3 days, but on October 9 it is 110 days. In August, the lowest doubling time in the city among zones was in Ambattur at 36.5 days. Compared to that in October, the lowest doubling time is 84.8 days, in Perungudi .
The data shows that for some zones the case doubling rate has either stagnated or has decreased. Royapuram and Tondiarpet, which had doubling times of 140 days and 128 days in August, have almost the same doubling time now.
In August, Manali zone, which has the lowest number of cases in the city, had a doubling time of 158 days. However, the spread increased in October and the doubling time dropped to 102 days.
Corporation commissioner G Prakash said they were watching the doubling time of zones and would focus where the spread of the infection is faster. “The focus would be in terms of samples collected, containment zones, medical camps and patient management systems,” he said.
Epidemiologist P Ganeshkumar from the National Institute of Epidemiology said despite opening up, Chennai has not reported a major increase in the number of cases. “Testing is intense and contact tracing is being done. There is a special focus on industries, workplace and vendors. Cases cropping up in central regions of the city is inevitable due to presence of commercial hubs,” he said.