Dist logs 498 Covid cases

Coimbatore: The district recorded 498 fresh cases of Covid-19 on Thursday, taking the total number of cases to 2,20,005.
With 922 people getting discharged, the number of active cases fell to 3,805 people. The total number of people cured so far grew to 2,14,149, taking the recovery rate to 97.33%. The district also recorded 10 deaths due to the virus taking the toll to 2,051.
In a bid to clamp down on any chances of cases increasing, health department officials have increased testing of people from the average 9,000 to 10,000 a day to 11,250 samples on Thursday. “We are figuring out ways to increase it to 12,500 samples a day and ensure positivity rate remains under 5%,” a senior health department official said. On Thursday, the positivity rate stood at 4.4%.
Bringing down the positivity rate is crucial because remaining under 5% allows the state government to remove the lockdown and almost all restrictions on industries, commercial establishments, offices and public places functioning.