‘Improve containment to accelerate climb down’

The total positivity rate (number of positive cases for every 100 tests) in Chennai has come down from 24.2 per cent in June to 18.2 per cent in July.
For representational purpose. (Photo | P Jawahar, EPS)
For representational purpose. (Photo | P Jawahar, EPS)

CHENNAI: The total positivity rate (number of positive cases for every 100 tests) in Chennai has come down from 24.2 per cent in June to 18.2 per cent in July. Added with this, the daily positivity rate in the city on Wednesday plummeted to 11.87 per cent.

While the city has been reporting close to just 1,200 fresh cases for the past couple of days, the doubling rate of positive cases (number of days it takes for the count to double) in the city has risen to 25 days, from the 14-15 days in mid-June.

The better results could be attributed to the intense lockdown, say experts, during when, most people stayed home and testing was done at the ward level. With the city unlocks for economic activities, could the downward trend improve? Health experts stress on improving containment strategies, according to the current scenario.

Dr Prabhdeep Kaur, Deputy Director at National Institute of Epidemiology says, fever camps must be expanded to work places like markets, factories and offices. “During the lockdown, people were at home and hence, they attended camps at ward-level. Now that they are back to work, moving the camps to work places will be ideal for testing,’’ she said, adding that involving the private sector is something the city corporation could look at to screen more people.

“Symptomatic people may take over-the-counter drugs and move on. In such cases, if authorities have a tie-up with pharmacies and local hospitals, it would be easier to pick up cases,’’ she added. All said and done, the final onus is on the citizens, opine experts. They say there must be an equal effort taken by the people to prevent any outburst or spread, and this includes wearing masks and maintaining social distancing.

Infectious Diseases Specialist Dr Ram Gopalakrishnan of Apollo Hospitals says, “Spending 15 minutes with a person within a distance of two metres can put people at high risk. There is also emerging evidence that the spread could be air-borne,’’ he said, adding that work places should have free air-flow, and big gatherings be avoided.

“Companies should enforce work from home, as much as possible,’’ he added. Another important vertical is to take up advertisement campaigns on Covid awareness and expanding the area of testing, say experts.
“The civic body must focus on emerging hotspots as well. A ward level in-depth analysis must be done to identify such places to expand testing,’’ said Kaur.

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