“As we are doing targeted testing, the number of COVID-19 cases reported from Chennai will be high, at least for the next five to six days,” said J Radhakrishnan, Chennai’s Special Zonal officer on Sunday during a press meet. Later that evening, the city reported its highest single-day rise with 506 COVID-19 cases.
Radhakrishnan explained that since the health department was focussing on clusters such as the North Chennai cluster and Koyambedu cluster in the city, people will have to brace themselves for a higher number of cases in the coming days.
“We need not fear looking at the numbers. Over the past nine days we have been doing targeted testing. First it was the Koyambedu cluster and also the North Chennai cluster. We have to contextualise this increase in numbers with the increase in testing. We have to remember that Tamil Nadu has been doing the highest number of tests for detecting COVID-19 in the country,” he said.
TN currently has the highest testing rate in the country, with over 13,000 samples being tested every day. On Sunday, 669 new cases of COVID-19 were reported from Tamil Nadu, which is also among the highest day-wise numbers in the country. The state has reported 7204 cases of COVID-19 as of Sunday.
On fears of increased spreading of the viral infection since people’s movement would increase from Monday, Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner G Prakash who was present during the briefing said, “Transmission can happen even from hospitals and from those who come in from other states or districts. It is not just from containment areas. The more we test and identify persons, the more we will be able to extinguish transmission. This is a method used in public health. There is no need for people to panic,” he added.
Radhakrishnan pointed out that of the 200 wards in Chennai only two wards had over 300 cases in the city. “119 wards in the city have less than 10 cases and about 60 wards have between 11-30 cases,” he said and added that in about 32 COVID-care centres spread across the city about 760 individuals were being treated. “This is a dynamic number and keeps changing,” he said.