COIMBATORE: The health department has ramped up testing of samples following the steady surge of Covid-19 positive cases. On Monday, 211 new cases were recorded in the district.
Officials expressed concern that this could soon rise by at least 10 per cent as people continued to flout guidelines.
Speaking to TNIE, a health department official said, “The count is increasing every single day, thanks to the emergence of family clusters and election campaigns where several people fail to follow Covid-19 guidelines. At this rate of spike, the district would cross the 300-mark in a week.” The highest single-day spike for the district was 648 cases on 21 September 2020.
Further, the official said the positivity rate rose to 4.5 per cent as on Tuesday as against the 1.5 per cent in the first week of March.
Health department sources said the district was currently testing around 4,500 samples daily as against 2,500 tests till March. The district has a total of 55 containment zones in the city as well as in the rural areas.