Senior Health Department officials attributed the spike to the increase in testing, but also admitted that the relaxations on inter-district and inter-State travel played a role. The number of COVID-19 cases reported daily from Chennai had remained below 1,000 between August 6 and September 23. However, it crossed the mark on September 24 to record 1,089 cases and has been climbing gradually since then. 

Five of the fifteen city zones have more than 1,000 active cases now. Senior officials said the surge was due to the removal of restrictions on inter-district and inter-State travel as part of unlock measures.

“People have started coming from other districts to Chennai,” pointed out Dr TS Selvavinayagam, director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine. He also attributed it to the increase in sample testing in Tamil Nadu. “On an average, more than 85,000 samples are tested in Tamil Nadu every day,” he added. 

The State reported 5,622 new cases on Saturday, taking the tally to 6,14,507. Coimbatore recorded 486 cases, Chengalpattu 395, Salem 351, Tiruvallur 290 and Thanjavur 244. Tamil Nadu also added 65 deaths to the toll, which now stands at 9,718. 

Of the deaths, 21 were in Chennai. On Saturday, 5,596 people were discharged after treatment, taking the total recoveries to 5,58,534.