Spike in 5 zones pushes positivity rate up

After a six-day streak of reporting cases below 1,000-mark, the city Corporation saw the new cases going over 1,000 on August 14. According to the Corporation data, five zones – Adyar, Valasaravakkam, Madhavaram, Teynampet and Ambattur – were reporting a spike in the active cases.

With the increase in the new cases in the city, the COVID-19 positivity rate in the city has gone up over 10 per cent once again after touching a low of 7 per cent on August 8. The rise in the cases coincided with the increase in the influx of the people returning from the districts to the city. There is also an apprehension that the opening of the Tasmac shops would lead to further increase.

The active cases in the Adyar zone have gone up from 839 on August 10 to 1,157 on Tuesday, while Valasaravakkam saw the cases increase from 781 to 1,048 in the corresponding period. In North Chennai, Madavaram zone continues to witness a steady increase in the active cases from 432 to 550. Ambattur and Anna Nagar zones also saw a steep rise in the cases in the last few days.

A senior Corporation official said that the people arriving from the districts and other states should compulsorily remain home quarantine for 14 days. “Only if the people cooperate, we could keep the number of cases under control. It is everyone’s responsibility to do so,” the official said, adding that the increase in the case in a few zones could be due to various reasons including people not following the social distancing norms.

According to Chennai Corporation data, the city had reported as many as 1,196 new cases on Sunday and those cases have been reported from 820 city streets. On August 4, new cases were reported only from 493 streets, which is around 47 per cent lesser than the streets with new cases on Sunday.

Also, 386 streets out of total 820 streets are located in only five zones. The zones with a large number of infected streets are Ambattur, Anna Nagar, Kodambakkam (all central Chennai zones), Valasaravakkam and Adyar (south Chennai zones).

On Tuesday, the city recorded 1,182 new cases taking the total number of cases to 1,19,059. The recovered cases stood at 1,04,455 while the death toll touched 2501.