CHENNAI: In a significant dip, the number of streets with active COVID-19 cases in Chennai have come down from 8,402 on July 5 to 513 on August 7, while the containment zones in the city are just 23 now, across the 15 Corporation zones.
Among the zones, Ambattur has the highest number of streets - 67 - with active cases of 1419, which is 21 per cent in the zone. The zone remains to be worst affected, followed by Kodambakkam, which has 63
streets with a total active cases of 1347.
Anna Nagar has 48 streets with active cases, while Tondiarpet has 42 and Royapuram has 38. While Chennai has active cases of 11 percent, the zones Tondiarpet, Royapuram and Teynampet are below ten percent, while at Manali, it is just four percent.
Nine Corporation zones are free of containment zones, while three more zones - Thiruvika Nagar, Teynampet and Valsaravakkam - which has only one containment zone, are likely to be removed from the list too.
Officials credit the micro level containment like door to door screening and fever camps for more streets coming out of the Covid-19 positive list. While majority corporation zones are out of risk now,
officials seem to be battling hard to contain the spread at Ambattur and Anna Nagar, where cases are seeing a rise.
Corporation Commissioner G Prakash said the civic body has intensified containment work in the zones Ambattur, Anna Nagar, Kodambakkam and Valsaravakkam.
“The doubling time of Covid-19 cases in Chennai is 72.2 days, while in some north Chennai zones, the trend is 150 days. We are looking forward to bringing out the same results in the central and south
zones too,’’ Prakash said.
An average of 12,000 RTPCR tests are done in the city every day with a positivity rate of eight percent and a total recovery of 87 per cent.
Except for Ambattur, which has a recovery percentage of 77, rest of the other zones have a recovery rate of more than 80 percent, while four zones - Manali, Tondiarpet, Royapuram and Teynampet - have more
than 90 percent.
With the city heading close to 8 lakh RTPCR tests, the cumulative positivity rate stands at 13 percent now. “By the end of August, we will try to bring down the positivity rate to 6 percent and the curve
will flatten gradually,” Prakash said.
He added that the containment activities, including high number of RT PCR tests, will continue for the next four months in the city.