CHENNAI: In the Ambattur zone of the city corporation, only 2% of those who attended fever camps between May 8 and August 25 were found to have ILI (Influenza Like Illnesses) symptoms. Of the 1.4 lakh people who attended fever camps during this period, only 2438 were found to have symptoms. This is much lower than other zones like Tondiarpet in which 15% of the total people who attended fever camps were found to be symptomatic.
“Not only in fever camps, we are finding very few symptomatic people (with ILI symptoms) in the zone itself in general. Most of the positive cases we find of late are asymptomatic contacts and extended contacts of COVID-19 patients,” said a corporation official in Ambattur.
“Other than that, there is some increase in cases due to the growing number of people who are now visiting hospitals for pending check-ups and medical treatment after the relaxation of the lockdown,” he added.
The zone’s test positivity rate is being maintained at a ‘satisfactory’ 9-10%, he said.
However, out of the 2% who came in with ILI symptoms, 43% turned out to be COVID positive. In comparison, the city's overall percentage of ILI cases in fever camps who tested positive was at 17%. The other zones in the city corporation individually reported percentages in the range of 7-29 of the number of ILI cases who later went on to test COVID positive.
Though these figures are higher than in other zones, it is not all that bleak for Ambattur since the total number of people found to be COVID positive at these camps is still on the lower side.
Corporation data as on Tuesday showed that 2,392 people with ILI symptoms like fever and cough were tested between the above mentioned dates in Ambattur, of which a total of 1,025 swabs came back positive. Ambattur has had 2,357 fever camps, attended by 1.4 lakh people since May 8.