Active cases in Chennai see over 2k spike in 10 days

The city had only 9,868 active cases on September 23, including 980 new cases reported on that day. However, the daily new cases have steadily been on rise since then, reporting more than 1,000 cases every day. Thus, in just 11 days, the number of active cases went up by 2,415 to reach 12,283 on Sunday, show the bulletin from the State Health Department.

 According to the data from the Greater Chennai Corporation, Thiru Vi Ka Nagar, Anna Nagar, Teynampet, Kodambakkam and Adyar zones have more than 1,000 active cases. Though Alandur zone has only 665 active cases, it is about 10 per cent of the total cases reported so far.

 “We are continuing our containment measures and have instructed field officials to be stricter in ensuring social distancing and wearing of masks at public places. We are testing more than 12,000 samples every day,” said an official.

 Following the rise in cases, the civic body converted 10 streets across the city into containment zones. Earlier, when the new cases recorded a dip, the civic body had removed all the containment zones. Alandur zone alone has four containment zones.

 The spike in cases has also resulted in increasing growth rate of new cases. As per the data, average growth of new cases in the city has gone up to 2.7 per cent from less than zero per cent a few weeks ago. Of the 15 city zones, 12 have positive growth rate. Only Sholinganallur, Valasaravakkam and Perungudi zones have negative growth rate.

 Growth of new cases is the highest in Tiruvottiyur zone that has registered 9.6 per cent growth rate. The zone has 344 active cases, which is 7 per cent of the total cases.

 The city has so far recorded 3,274 deaths due to COVID-19, a case fatality rate of 1.9 per cent. As many as 421 persons died in Teynampet zone alone.