The Greater Chennai Corporation has removed all COVID-19 containment zones in its 15 zones, although there was a spike in the number of new COVID-19 cases on Thursday.
City Health Officer Jagadeesan said the city did not have any street with more than three index cases. “So, we have not earmarked containment zones,” said Dr. Jagadeesan.
A street is barricaded in the event of three index cases and if officials are unable to trace contacts that caused the infection.
Index case percentage
At least 30% of the COVID-19 cases in the city had been index cases in the past few months.
During the initial stages of the pandemic, the civic body created containment zones covering hundreds of households and many streets.
Restrictions were not relaxed during the initial days, affecting thousands of residents.
After a few months, the area under containment zones was reduced, covering only one street.
At one point of time, there were more than 1,000 containment zones in the city. The number fell to less than 10 last week.
Rise in cases
On Thursday, the city reported no containment zones. But the number of COVID-19 cases increased by 1,089. The number of new cases had been below the 1,000 mark in the last 21 days.
“We are studying the reasons. We will find if this is because of the relaxation of transportation,” said Dr. Jagadeesan.
The case fatality rate in the city was 1.95%, he added.