With one million RT-PCR tests, city covers 12 per cent of population

According to Chennai Corporation data, more than 10.18 lakh tests have been conducted, of which 1.16 lakh samples were found to be positive.

“After the State government announced a second complete lockdown in the city, the number of daily tests increased exponentially to more than 10,000 from less than 6,000 prior to the complete lockdown,” an official said.

The official added that in a few days in August, more than 14,000 samples were tested. In August alone, around 4 lakh tests have been tested. As per the Chennai Corporation’s recent estimation, the city’s present population is around 82.16 lakh.

Meanwhile, the civic body has also increased the number of samples collected by conducting fever camps, door-to-door surveys and contact tracing. On the other hand, residents complain that the field-officials are forcing them to take part in fever camps and provide samples.

There are 44 testing labs in the city permitted by Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) of which 31 are private labs.

Suggesting the spike of index cases and clusters in the city, the number of containment zones have been increased to 45. As on August 18, there were only 18 containment zones across 15 zones of the city.

As per the protocol, the civic body would seal a street if three or more index cases are reported in the street. Also, the streets would be sealed if three or more families test positive.

As per the civic body data, Anna Nagar zone has 12 containment zones and Valasaravakkam and Adyar zones have 10 containment zones each.

Also, Kodambakkam zone has 8 containment zones. Civic body officials attributed the increase in the number of cases to travel relaxations given by the government as well as to the increase of daily tests.