Coimbatore district has witnessed more than four-fold rise in the daily caseload of COVID-19 in the last one month, registering a three-time increase in the test positivity rate (TPR). The district had 996 positive cases on April 27 which escalated to 4,734 on Thursday. The district's TPR stood at 30.87% as of Wednesday against the 10% it had on April 26.
The COVID-19 data released by the Health Department also showed that the active cases of the disease increased more than five times during the period in the district. Coimbatore district’s active cases stood at 37,488 on Thursday which was 6,948 on April 27.
Commenting on the situation, wherein Coimbatore topped the State in terms of the daily caseload on Wednesday and Thursday, Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan said that the next 10 days will be “very crucial” for the district. According to him, the onus was on “proper containment”.
“Containment of COVID-19 affected pockets have to be very perfect in the coming days. Health workers have been instructed to conduct house visits to ensure proper containment. Early referral of family members of infected persons, even if they don’t have symptoms, has been advised. Proper isolation of such people will help in reducing the spread,” he said.
Though the district has the capacity to conduct 19,000 tests a day, the Health Department did not have the plan to increase tests.
To coordinate containment strategies in the district and effective handling of the situation, the government sent M.A. Siddique, Principal Secretary/Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, to Coimbatore, he said.
District Collector S. Nagarajan said that the daily caseload was expected to come down in the next few days due to various interventions being done.
K. Kolandasamy, former Director of Public Health, Tamil Nadu, said that hospitals in Coimbatore, a medical hub, were witnessing high flow of COVID-19 patients from neighbouring districts which could also be a reason for the current rise in the number of cases.
“Thickly populated areas, closed/contained places and places having more number of hospitals have high chances of having new infections. People who come along with COVID-19 patients to hospitals and then visit other places are potential carriers of the disease,” he said.
Meanwhile, a private laboratory in Coimbatore was found to have sent swab samples it had collected to Maharashtra as it could not run them beyond the capacity. “The lab had the capacity to run 500 samples per day. However, they collected more samples and sent them to Maharashtra. The results which were pending for some days returned on Thursday and it reflected in the daily caseload,” said Mr. Radhakrishnan.