They Record More Than 100 Cases A Day

They Record More Than 100 Cases A Day

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: 31.07.2020

The focus of the city corporation’s battle against Covid-19 continues to be the central part, mainly Kodambakkam, Anna Nagar and Ambattur that have recorded a significantly high number of cases in the last two weeks, official data shows.

Though no clusters have emerged, these zones have been recording more than 100 cases daily, officials said. Aggressive testing in slum areas, of contacts and even mildly symptomatic people will continue until the cases drop to less than 100 a day, officials said.

TOI looked at two indicators. One is the increase in the last two weeks in the total number of cases — the sum of active cases, deaths and recoveries. The second indicator is the number of active cases.

Statistics show that Kodambakkam and Anna Nagar recorded around 28% of all total cases in the last two weeks. Ambattur, which is contiguous with Anna Nagar that covers a part of neighbouring Tiruvallur district, had not recorded a high number of cases for many weeks. Now, there has been an increase of 1,721 in the total number of cases.

It is topping the Covid-19 case chart in the city, accounting for the third-highest number of active cases at 1,198. In comparison, Royapuram and Tondiarpet, which were the erstwhile hotspots, have only 806 and 602 active cases.

A senior official told TOI that in Anna Nagar, Kodambakkam and Ambattur a large number of working class citizens had been testing positive. “These are not people living in slums,” the official said. Areas where cases remain high include Attipattu and Padikuppam in Ambattur zone and Saligrammam and Virugambakkam in Kodambakkam zone.

Another official said several people who were employed in industries in Ambattur resided in wards in these three zones and were testing positive.

The officials said the number of daily fresh cases was expected to stabilise to less than 100 in Kodambakkam zone this week, while it Ambattur and Anna Nagar the process could take one more week.

In the southern part, Adyar has emerged as the zone with a significantly high increase in total cases in the last two weeks. A senior Greater Chennai Corporation official said this was in areas like Guindy, Saidapet. Nandanam, RA Puram and Adyar.

“Adyar is the most populous zone with 7lakh-7.5 lakh people. Contrary to popular perception, it is not entirely an affluent area and has many low-income group localities. The daily count of cases is stable and has neither reduced nor increased. About 50% of cases are contacts,” the official said.