CHENNAI: Eighty percent of COVID-19 patients in Chennai have recovered from the infection, with the active cases in the city dropping to a new low of just 18 percent now, while the mortality rate is 1.63 percent.
Of the 82,128 positive cases in the city so far, a whopping 65,748 have recovered while there are still 15,038 active cases. A total of 1341 people have died till July 16 while the city’s discharge rate is higher than the state’s 68.69 percent.
Every day, the number of people discharged in the city is higher than the number of new cases by at least 500.
Interestingly, ten corporation zones, including three erstwhile hotspots, have a recovery rate of more than 80 percent. The Tondiarpet corporation zone has the highest recovery at 88 percent, followed by Royapuram zone at 87 percent.
These zones just have 848 and 1141 active cases, which amount to 10 and 11 percent respectively. The daily positivity rate in the city has come down to 10 percent after the civic body ramped up testing.
Former director of public health Dr K Kolandasamy said that the city's trends clearly indicate that cases in the community have decreased.
“Normally, 100 percent people successfully recover in the COVID care centres and mid-tier hospitals. Severe cases are handled only in the GHs. The city’s mortality rate is a reflection of how the healthcare sector has performed in the past months,’’ he said.
Dr Kolandasamy said that fever clinics performed a key role in bringing down cases and he was hopeful that they would come down further to three digits in the coming days.
Since July, the city has seen a decline in positive cases by about 50 percent. However, just for the past few days, there has been a minor spike and dip in the curve.
Virologist Dr Jacob John says the minor ups and downs in the city’s COVID curve are not significant as cases have come down largely.
Dr John said that the recovery rate data would surely improve every day but it is vital to keep the mortality rate in check. “If it’s 2 percent, eventually 98 percent of people will recover. Thus, it is
important to focus on healthcare,’’ he said.