Chennai records over 5000 daily Covid cases for the first time, test positivity rate at 20%

Officials, public health experts say Sunday lockdown and restrictions will play a role in bringing cases down in May.

Relatives of Covid-infected patients wait in queue at the special counter opened to buy Remdesivir at Kilpauk Medical College in Chennai. (Photo | Martin Louis, EPS)

CHENNAI: The city saw a record 5,445 COVID-19 cases on Thursday as the test positivity rate rose drastically from 17.5 percent on April 18 to 20.6 percent. Forty deaths too were recorded.

Officials said daily tests have been ramped up, and measures are being taken to contain the spread. 

"We have ramped up daily tests by 10,000 in a month, from March to April. Screening centers too have been introduced to triage patients," said Chennai Corporation officials. 

From about 15,000 tests in March, the city corporation on Thursday tested its highest of 23,120 people in a single day. 

Chennai's case growth recorded on April 25 is at 5.7 percent, with all the zones seeing a spike in numbers. 

"Ambattur (8.6 percent case growth) is having a lot of clusters and Sholinganallur zone (7.6 % case growth) too is recording more cases," officials said. 

In Chennai, Anna Nagar, Kodambakkam, Manali, Adyar, Alandur, Valsavarakkam, Sholinganallur and Ambattur are all seeing a worrying trend of rise in cases. 

The city overall has 10 percent active cases and 2,87,496 people have recovered from the virus. 

Teynampet zone has the most number of active cases with 3293, followed by Kodambakkam with 3100 and Teynampet with 3093, while Alandur has the highest percentage of cases at 13%. 

Officials are hopeful that once the vaccination drive picks up from May 1, the cases may come down. "We have also been strict with our Covid-19 restrictions when it comes to shutting down places that have not been following the norms. These restriction measures will reflect by next week," an official said. 

Former Director of Public Health Dr K Kolandasamy said, "The lockdown and restriction measures will surely facilitate a decrease in cases (in May). However, restrictions must continue to be strict in closed ventilated places." 

Dr Kolandasmay said Chennai is seeing a bigger spike because normally metro cities are the epicenters for a pandemic. "The metros have malls, theatres, entertainment places, and dense population. So, cases are normally higher in cities for any pandemic," he explained.