Coimbatore: West zone bucks trend, registers more cases

COIMBATORE: While fresh Covid-19 cases in corporation limits have recorded an 18% drop in the last 10 days, it does not seem uniform across the five zones.
Data with the civic body shows that while earlier problematic zones like the south zone and east zone, known for industrial and housing clusters, have managed to reduce transmission drastically, the west zone is seeing an uptick in cases.The zone has the city’s posh and commercial hubs like R S Puram, Poo Market, Gandhi Park and a portion of Saibaba Colony.
West zone topped the table, reporting 276 out of the 1,182 fresh cases recorded on Tuesday. The figure was not just the highest on Tuesday, but the highest reported in the last six days. The last time it recorded more than 276 cases was on May 26, when it reported 410 cases, and the district’s case figures were at their peak.
The health department, however said the figures were not worrying. “We have to analyze whether the high numbers are because of an increase in sample collection in the zone on Tuesday, and due to high positivity rate. Many may have tested positive,” said city health officer Dr S Raja. “However, there has been no new cluster in the zone,” he said.
During the first wave and beginning of the second wave in April, the district saw many cases in R S Puram’s dense residential areas, the crowded Poo Market and parts of Saibaba Colony. “The densely crowded Poo Market, Anna Market, Saibaba Colony Market, MGR Market and TK Market are in the west zone. But the markets have been closed for the last three weeks, which led to the drop in cases. This sudden increase in cases could just be a one-off,” said a corporation official.
Comparatively, the other zones, which reported a higher number of cases due to presence of industries, especially jewellery and trading houses, and dense housing, have been bringing cases under control. The east and north zone, which were both reporting 400-500 cases each a day in May last week, brought them down to 178 and 231 cases respectively on Tuesday.
“The drop in cases in those zones can be attributed to the decision to ban all industries from working, except those in essential services,” said Raja. “Once employees stopped getting infected in industries, they didn’t infect others,” said a health department official. The corporation insisted that the positivity rate is below 30%.
The civic body has been taking several control measures like conducting 120 fever camps a day, trying to cover streets with new positive cases, widening containment in streets with more than three cases each and has begun door-to-door surveillance of houses near new positive cases. “This is to identify those with even the earliest symptoms like fever and sore throat,” said Raja.
The health department hopes this would happen in rural areas also, where the spike in cases is due to industrial clusters.