On Sunday, the number of positive cases in the city climbed past the 10,000-mark with 587 more persons testing positive.

The number of active cases stood at 5,653 and 4,844 persons had been discharged. The city had the highest death tally of 78.

Four zones in the city had registered over 1,000 positive cases and seven zones together had around 7,000 cases according to the Greater Chennai Corporation.

Health officials said the number was bound to increase in the coming days as the Health Department had intensified its testing and contact tracing. The city had not achieved its peak yet. But the curve was expected to flatten, they said.

“Positive cases are not a danger to us. What we should be worried about is the vulnerable segment of the population. All the positive persons are not going to be diseased patient. We are concentrating more on death of the vulnerable,” said P. Kuganantham, former Corporation health officer.

For the Corporation, the focus is on identifying positive persons and getting them admitted to hospitals. The civic body has deployed health workers to conduct door-to-door survey to check for non-communicable diseases. Residents are being mobilised for testing.

Unlike in the past when an entire street was cordoned if a positive case was reported, the Health Department has decided to focus only on the house from where positive cases were noticed. The residents of the house are quarantined and they were put under surveillance.

“We are concerned about the vulnerable population. We don’t want them to be affected. Contact tracing, focused testing and checking house to house is important. The virus has proved to be non-virulent unlike in the Western countries,” Dr. Kuganantham said.