Target achieved: Corporation manages to bring down test positivity rate to around 5 per cent

According to Chennai Corporation data, of the 9,009 persons tested on Thursday, only 471 persons tested positive, which is only 5.22 per cent test positivity rate. Also, the civic body had tested 10,411 samples and identified 479 positive cases on Wednesday, which is only 4.60 per cent test positivity rate. At one point, the test positivity rate was between 35 per cent to 40 per cent in the city.

Chennai Corporation Commissioner G Prakash had repeatedly said in the past that the civic body’s target is to reduce the test positivity rate to 5 per cent.

Meanwhile, Manali and Sholinganallur zones reported less than 100 active cases with 49 and 47 cases respectively. Also, active cases in all zones have come down to less than 400. Overall, there were only 4,567 active cases on Thursday morning, which is only 2 per cent of the total cases reported in the city.

The civic body also has managed to bring the mortality rate down to 1.80 per cent as the city recorded 3,792 COVID-19 deaths.

Despite the positivity rate coming down, the civic body continues to conduct fever clinics across the city to identify more positive cases. From May 8 to Wednesday, close to 73,000 fever clinic camps were conducted in which more than 35.87 lakh persons taken part.