Daily count soars to 2,835, test positivity rate touches 27%

Coimbatore: The daily caseload continues to soar in the district, which reported an all-time high of 2,835 Covid-19 positive cases on Thursday. The number of active cases is also on the rise and surged past the 16,000-mark to 16,271. The test positivity rate has increased to 27% for the first time since the Covid-19 breakout.
While the district has so far tested 1,06,030 people positive for the virus, 88,935 of them, including 1,740 patients who were discharged from various treatment centres on the day, have been recovered. The recovery rate has dipped to another low of 83.8%, mainly because of the spike in daily caseload.
The Covid-19 toll too continues to spiral in the district. It recorded 13 deaths on the day, taking the total number of fatalities to 824. Among the deceased were a 34-year-old man without any comorbidities who died three days after testing positive, a 30-year-old woman who died a week after hospitalization and a 45-year-old diabetic man who died within 24 hours of admission to hospital.
Officials attributed the spike to the insensitivity of people, who continue to move around unnecessarily despite the lockdown measures, increased transmissibility of the virus and hospitals becoming Covid hotspots. An official said, “More people are thronging hospitals to find beds for relatives and family, and take care of them. They don’t know how to protect themselves. They get infected and transmit the virus to their entire family and colleagues at workplaces.”
Dr G Ramesh Kumar, deputy director of public health, said 53 people of an industrial unit and 46 inmates of old age home had test positive for the virus.
While the bulletin said 13 ICU beds (with ventilators) and 16 oxygen beds were available in the government hospitals, in realty there were none. Even the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital, which received 80 high-flow oxygen beds on Thursday, was filled to the capacity. In the private sector, 45 ventilator beds and 259 oxygen beds were vacant as per the bulletin. But most of the hospital with beds, including Sri Lakshmi Hospital (8) Venketeshwara Hospital (8), Mouthi Nursing Home (7), K J Hospital (5) and Alva Hospital (5), refused to admit patients citing lack of oxygen.