CHENNAI: The daily count of
Covid-19 cases in the city is down to the level last seen exactly five months ago.
On October 27 and 28, the city recorded 695 and 688 cases. On May 29 and 30, the figures were 618 and 616.
However, there is a crucial difference. Five months ago, Greater Chennai Corporation was testing a fraction of what it is doing now, which means that the test positivity rate (TPR) then was more than double of what it is now.
For instance, in May last week, the number of
Covid-19 samples tested in Chennai was in the range of 3,500-3,700. This meant that the TPR, which is an indication of the spread of the infection, was 15% to 17%.
Currently, the corporation is testing around 11,000 samples everyday, which means that the TPR has come down to 6.5%.
However, the number of tests conducted by the corporation everyday has dropped by around 2,000 from the second week of October. The corporation used to test around 13,000 samples then which is down to 11,000 now. Officials say this is an organic drop and that they are not turning anyone away.
“Our field work continues to be active,” said a zonal level official in Central Chennai.
Incidentally, the number of recoveries everyday has also outstripped the number of fresh cases regularly in the past few weeks.
The number of active cases in the city is just 7,628, of which 2,579 are in neighbouring districts. Among the 15 zones in the civic body, not a single zone has 5% of active Covid-19 cases.
In fact, Thiruvottiyur, Manali and Sholinganallur zones could soon be registering less than 100 active cases, if daily trends are anything to go by.
The zones had 119, 118 and 111 active cases as on Friday morning. Just two weeks ago, on October 15, these zones had 400, 199 and 284 active cases. The total number of active cases then was 13,304.
Sources in the corporation say Sholinganallur may emerge as the first zone to have less than 100 active cases, as the number of active cases in Manali witnesses and increase and decrease on alternate days. At 0.84%, Sholinganallur also has the lowest case fatality rate (CFR) among all zones in the city. “This is primarily attributed to the younger population (IT crowd) that resides in these areas,” GCC officials said.