Active cases in Chennai fall to less than 2k

The number of active COVID cases in the city has gone below 2,000, a drastic fall from the peak about a month when Chennai had more than 60,000 people undergoing treatment. Only one of the 15 city zones had more than 200 cases as on Friday morning.

As per data from the Health Department, the city has only 1,651 active cases, including the 126 new cases that it added on Saturday. This stands in stark contrast with the 61,691 active case load on January 19.

In another encouraging sign that the city has left behind the worst of the third wave, except Adyar, none of the 15 zones have more than 200 active cases as of Friday.

While Adyar in south has the highest number of cases, 201, Tiruvottiyur, Manali, Madhavaram, Tondiarpet and Royapuram – all in north Chennai region – have less than 100 cases with 56, 47, 66, 68 and 79, respectively, show Greater Chennai Corporation data from Saturday morning.

The test positivity rate has also come down to 1.3 per cent. The civic body tested 10,539 samples on Friday, of which 133 were confirmed positive.

The data also show that the Corporation has gradually reduced the number of samples being tested every day from more 32,000 samples to around 10,000.

Tamil Nadu COVID-19 numbers dropped to below 500 on Saturday, with 480 new fetting reported, including three imported cases — one each from Malaysia, West Bengal and Kerala — taking the total number of cases to 34,48,568. 

The cases saw a sharp decline in Chennai, which recorded 126 cases, the highest in Tamil Nadu. Other districts reported less than 100 cases with 72 in Coimbatore and 55 in Chengalpattu. Kallakurichi, Mayiladuthurai, Perambalur, Theni and Tirupathur districts did not record even a single case. As many as 62,775 more samples were tested for COVID-19 in the State in the past 24 hours and the overall test positivity rate (TPR) in Tamil Nadu on Saturday stood at 0.8 per cent. 

The State recorded two deaths due to the pandemic virus, taking the toll so far to 38,002. A total of 1,464 more people were discharged from several hospitals across the State, taking the total recoveries to 34,03,402.