CHENNAI: In a relief for residents, COVID-19 cases in Chennai have seen a big fall in the last seven days.
Between May 11 and 17, the city recorded 47,595 new cases while from May 18 to 24, the number dropped to 40,012 -- a decrease of about 7500. The city even recorded fewer than 5000 daily cases after quite some time on May 24.
The positivity rate in the city on May 24 was 17.16 percent, a huge fall from 26 percent on May 10.
Chennai corporation officials say that the bulk vaccination drive may play a key role in further reducing the cases.
“Ever since we released the forms for bulk vaccine registration, there has been a huge demand. We have held camps in offices, apartment complexes and even streets with a good turnout,” an official with the corporation said.
Chennai so far has vaccinated 18.59 lakh people and on average, in the past week, about 20,000 people were vaccinated every day.
Officials said that Chennai has received 25 percent out of the total vaccines supplied to the state. “We have vaccinated about 18.59 lakh people, using close to 90 percent of the total doses,” said officials, adding that they expect more bulk registrations for vaccination.
In Chennai, 89 percent of total Covid patients have been discharged so far and active cases are at 10 percent, which is 48,151 as of May 23.
Four corporation zones -- Royapuram, Thiruvika Nagar, Teynampet, and Kodambakkam -- have less than 10 percent active cases with Royapuram being the lowest at 6 percent.
On the other hand, the Sholinganallur zone has 15 percent of active cases -- the highest among the 15 zones. Meanwhile, health department officials told Express that fines to a tune of Rs 32 crores have been collected for COVID-19 violations since March this year.
"The zonal enforcement teams which include police have been advised to question people who are roaming unnecessarily and fine them. They have also closed down smaller alternative routes to main roads and have put check posts in main roads to screen vehicles," a corporation official said.