As city cases breach 1,000 mark, test positivity rate exceeds 10 per cent again

According to the Greater Chennai Corporation data, of the 12,105 samples tested on Saturday, 1,294 persons were found to be infected, which is 10.7 per cent positivity rate. On Friday, 12,982 people were tested and 1,282 were found positive, which is 9.9 per cent.

On August 8, the city reached 7 per cent positivity rate, which was just 2 per cent more than the target of achieving the 5 per cent positivity rate. Of the 14,027 people tested, only 986 had been confirmed positive. The data also shows that from August 14, the city has been witnessing more than 1,100 new positive cases. “A majority of new cases are being reported from zones such as Anna Nagar, Ambattur, Kodambakkam, Adyar and Valasaravakkam. Instructions have been issued to intensify containment measures in these zones,” a Chennai Corporation official said.

While addressing the press recently, Chennai Corporation Commissioner G Prakash had said that the civic body was working towards reducing the test positivity rate to 6 to 6.5 per cent before the end of this month.

“There will be no steep fall in the test positivity rate. It will dip slowly but at a steady rate,” he had said. However, in the last 10 days since August 14, the test positivity rate has crossed 10 per cent. During the peak of the spread, the test positivity range was above 30 per cent.

Meanwhile, the growth rate of new cases in the city has been 1.4 per cent for the last 7 days till August 22. Except Ambattur, Manali and Royapuram, all the other zones have shown positive growth rate, showing an increase in new cases.