Covid-19: Test positivity rate below 3% in Chennai – Times of India

CHENNAI: Even as Chennai Corporation intensifies surveillance on passengers return from the UK due to new strain of the virus, the city’s test positivity rate (TPR) has fallen down further to less than 3%.
As per latest data from the corporation, the TPR, the percentage of samples that return positive and a measure of the spread of the infection, has come down below 3% in the last few days.
For instance, the TPR on Thursday was 2.4%. It must be recalled that during the months of May and June, TPR was in the range of 25-30% on many days. It has gradually decreased over the months. Medical experts say that testing should be at a limit where the TPR is 5%.
“This shows that the spread in the city has reduced, but people still need to maintain precautions like masking and physical distancing,” an official said.
The Chennai Corporation has also increased the number of tests. On Thursday, the civic body carried out more than 12,000 tests for the first time since mid-October. Prior to that, GCC was testing more than 11,000 people a day.
The number of active cases has also dropped to less than 3,000 as on Thursday morning.
Four of the 15 zones in the city have less than 100 active Covid-19 cases. While Tiruvottiyur has 48 cases, Manali has 43, Madhavaram 71 and Shollinganallur has 83 active cases.
Majority of the active cases are in the core city zones. Adyar has the maximum active cases at 417, while Kodambakkam has 397 cases and Anna Nagar has 330. Tondiarpet and Royapuram, the erstwhile hotspots during the peak months,have119 and203 active cases respectively.
Corporation sources said that the positivity among the UK return passengers in Chennai has not been too high; majority of the samples tested have returned negative.