While daily caseload of COVID-19 is seeing a gradual decline in Coimbatore district, the Test Positivity Rate (TPR) has been fluctuating as per the statistics released by the Health Department and the district administration.
The fluctuation of TPR was in accordance with the changes in the number of tests carried out.
In the last eight days in June, the district’s TPR saw an increase on three days even when the number of new COVID-19 cases reported on those days registered a decline from the previous day.
The district recorded the TPR 27.77 % on June 2 when 11,020 samples were tested.
The TPR increased to 31 % on June 3 and to 33.84 % on June 4 when the number of samples tested also reduced to 9,611 and 8,303 respectively.
A senior official involved in COVID-19 monitoring in the district claimed that the number of tests varied on different days due to various reasons and not because the sample collection was reduced deliberately so as to reflect a decline in the number of positive cases.
Meanwhile, sources at different hospitals treating COVID-19 patients said that the inflow of patients had reduced when compared with the situation a week ago.
“Some beds including O2 beds have been vacant in the last two-three days,” said the chairman of a private hospital.
K. Kolandasamy, former Director of Public Health, Tamil Nadu, said that patients seeking hospital care was the visible indicator of the severity of the pandemic situation.
“If the number of patients getting admitted to hospital see a decrease, it can be considered as an indicator of actual decline of cases,” he said.