Rise, fall and again rise: Covid’s roller-coaster ride in Madurai

MADURAI: With the district seeing a persistent rise in fresh Covid-19 cases, the test positivity rate climbed to 8.14 percent on Tuesday, after several months.

The number of active cases in the district breached the 1000-mark on Saturday, after a gap of seven months since September 9 last.

However, as of Monday, only about 20 percent of the Covid beds (776 beds) available in the district were occupied.

According to the bulletin released by the State Health Department, the number of fresh Covid cases in the district has been on the rise since the last week of March. After nearly seven months (since September 8, 2020), the number of daily fresh Covid infections touched the 100-mark on April 2, and in 10 days, the daily count doubled to reach the 200-mark on April 12, after a gap of nearly eight months (since July 30, 2020).

Stepping up the Covid-19 tests, the district that tested 3,435 samples on April 1, tested this month's highest of 4,299 samples on Wednesday, said official sources.

The test positivity rate in the district that stood at 1.4% on April 1 jumped to 8.14% on April 12, revealed the data obtained by TNIE from the district health department. Similarly, the number of active cases in the district that stood at 156 on January 1, reached the year's lowest on February 27 and February 28 with 50 active cases each. However, a surge began in the third week of March.

While there were 105 active cases on March 19, it touched the 300-mark on March 31 when 301 active cases were recorded on the day. In six days, the number of active cases in the district touched 500 on April 5 (544 active cases) while in another five days, it doubled and breached the 1,000-mark.

On Monday, the number of active cases in the district touched the 1,300-mark. Ramping up the medical infrastructure to treat Covid patients, the district administration arranged 3,877 Covid beds in various hospitals, as on Monday.