CHENNAI: The Chennai corporation is aiming to bring COVID-19 positivity rate in the city to 8-10 per cent from the existing 10-12 per cent by the end of July, Chennai Corporation Commissioner G Prakash said.
“Realistically speaking, we are aiming to bring the positivity rates down to 8-10 per cent and then from there on, to 5 per cent which is recommended,” he said.
He said that the time between a patient result being out to admission to hospitals or home quarantine after the screening, now stands between 3-3.5 hours.
“Two months back, it used to take up to two days in some cases. Now we have an improved system in place. If a person tests positive, he’ll be in a hospital or home quarantine by 6 pm the same day,” he said.
At present, the city’s doubling time is at 47 days, way ahead of the WHO-recommended 14 days. In zones like Royapuram where the caseload was high earlier, the doubling time is at 97 days, he said.
Further, the city corporation claimed that as on Saturday, over 5 lakh tests done have been conducted by RT-PCR, "which is considered the best method globally".
He went on to say that the city has touched up to 13,000 tests a day.
Until now, around Rs 400 crores have been spent on various COVID related activities, including Rs 200 crores for testing alone, he said.
The city corporation Commissioner said that the city was ready for the lockdown to be lifted or any relaxations.
“Livelihoods should be protected and the economy should recover. In the Chief Secretary’s meeting yesterday, we were discussing how we have moved to the unlock phase,” he said.
Systems have been created and are in place to move on, he said.
“However, we will not relax our efforts in any way. It will go on with the same intensity for the next four months or until necessary,” he added.