CHENNAI: In its lowest ever, the Covid-19 active cases in Chennai has come down below one per cent while a high of 97.5 per cent has been discharged.
This decrease in active cases comes despite the city recently reporting a few Covid clusters in educational institutions and star hotels. However, even then, the overall numbers did not go up much.
Presently, 2,107 people are undergoing treatment in the city for Covid, which is 0.9 percent, while a total of 2,21,820 people out of the total 2,27,975 cases have been discharged,
Officials say that the daily presentations to hospitals too are about 30 and in that only 10 to 15 people are requiring admissions. “Close to 95 per cent of beds are vacant in the government hospitals now. However, the Covid wards are still functioning in full swing in anticipation of any spike,” said an official with the health department.
In a weekly comparison of daily cases between two weeks, Chennai recorded 1982 positive cases from December 25 to 31 last year, while it recorded 1636 cases from January 1 to 7, indicating a further decline.
Presently, according to the data from the health department, the average positive cases in the city daily is at 246 while the city has a growth rate of cases in negative at 2.8 per cent. 12 out of 15 zones have a case growth in negative while zone 6 (Thiruvika Nagar) has a case growth of zero while Zone 4 Tondiarpet and Zone 7 Ambattur have a case growth of less than one month.
Corporation officials said that case growth can show a minor spike in certain areas for a short period due to focused testing and it would again go back to negative the following week.
“We test big offices, industries, and companies. If we test 500 people in a Corporation office, some 20 may test positive. So the specific zone may show a short spike in case growth but overall there is no spike,” said an official with the Corporation’s health department.
Officials said that focused testing without decrease is the key to keep cases under control even when there are clusters in certain pockets.
Testimony to the high testing numbers over the recent times, Chennai’s Covid-19 tests per million at 3,03,478 is twice that of Tamil Nadu which is 1,69,475, and thrice that of India’s which is 1,29,276. Out of the 891 people tested, who had a travel history to the UK, only nine turned positive, while about 120 tested positive from the hotels while 200 tested positive from the educational institutions. Officials said the clusters were contained within days.
Source: https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/2021/jan/12/covid-19-active-cases-in-chennai-comes-down-below-1-2249223.html
