CHENNAI: After over two months, the positivity rate in Chennai has slid down to the single-digit mark. After hitting a high of 31.67 per cent on June 15, it has now reached 9.52 per cent. The dip started in the last week of June, when the city corporation ramped up the testing to over 10,000 a day.
On Saturday, the civic body tested 12,803 people of which just 1,219 tested positive -- positivity rate of 9.52 per cent.
The last time the city reported positivity rate in single digits was on May 15, at 8.52 per cent. The rate could not be brought down since then as the testing rates remained low -- around 5,000 -- and cases surged with the eruption of clusters in Koyambedu and Pulianthope.
The thing that worked later was the intense lockdown between June 19 and July 5, which brought down the caseload by a solid 50 per cent. Subsequently, as per the experts’ advice, testing, too, was ramped up.
Tondiarpet zone, which once was a hot spot, was the first to reach the single digit active cases mark at 9 percent. Chennai’s overall recovery rate is at 81 per cent now, and 10 out of the 15 corporation zones have a recovery rate of more than 80 percent with Tondiarpet being the highest at 89, followed by Royapuram at 87. Experts in the past have highlighted that the city’s ward level fever camps also played a role in bringing cases down.
The city corporation is now working to bring the positivity rates in the Central zones under control after it was found that positivity rate in Anna Nagar, Teynampet, Kodambakkam and Adyar zones are at 20-22 per cent, city corporation Commisioner G Prakash said.
Talking to reporters on Sunday, the Commissioner said that 60 per cent of the overall cases have been observed to be from the above mentioned zones. North Chennai zones, on the other hand, record a positivity of only 5-8 per cent he said.
“Usually, the trend is that the initial case load explosion will be in high density areas so Tondiarpet, Royapuram and Thiru Vi Ka Nagar zones were affected. After a big network of (control) activities were undertaken in these zones, there has been a natural downfall,” he said. “We have held a meeting with the Zonal Health Officers to strategise and plan in the Central zones and Adyar. We have a dedicated portal to monitor any possible clusters,” he added.
Meanwhile, the city corporation has began disbursement of the Rs 1000 relief announced by Chief Minister ‘Edappadi’ K Palaniswami for persons with disabilities, in June. “By the end of the month, the city corporation will have a database of all persons with disabilities which we are enumerating ward wise through our staff. We are planning to share the database with the State Commissionerate for the Differently Abled,” he said. An estimated 59,679 people with disabilities are expected to be benefitted under the scheme, Commissioner said.