Positivity rate in fever camps continues to fall

Chennai

As of Monday, the Corporation has a total of 37,384 fever camps since May 8. As many as 20.39 lakh persons have attended the camps and 1.18 lakh persons were identified with influenza-like illness (ILI) symptoms. Of the symptomatic cases, 1.15 lakh persons underwent swab test and 19,787 tested positive which 17 per cent positivity rate.

Interestingly, till August 6, out of the 88,247 samples taken, 16,524 had turned positive, which gives a positivity rate of 18 per cent. As of July 7, the positivity rate was at 31 per cent, the highest, after 10,569 tested positive from the 37,616 samples.

In contrast to the trend in the fever camps, the city’s COVID-19 positivity rate has gone up over 10 per cent after touching a low of 7 per cent on August 8.

A senior Corporation official said that the fever camps played an important role in bringing down the caseload in the city. “The camps play an active role in identifying people with symptoms to test and isolate them to prevent spreading. Moreover, it will help reduce the mortality rate to a great extent,” the official said. When asked about the fall in the positivity rate in the fever camps and rise in the city’s positivity rate, the official said that it could be due to various factors, including testing of asymptomatic cases. “The relaxation of lockdown norms also increases the risk of spread of the coronavirus. Until the people take the precaution of wearing masks and maintaining social distancing, the cases will increase irrespective of the steps taken by the Corporation and the government,” the official added.

According to Corporation data, the Ambattur zone has the highest positivity rate of 43 per cent with 1,025 persons testing positive out of the symptomatic cases of 2,379. Out of the 15 zones in the city, seven zones have a positivity rate of 17 per cent or less.