Cases dip in industrial hubs, but Coimbatore has other red zones

COIMBATORE: While the number of fresh Covid-19 cases in Coimbatore corporation limits has recorded an 18% drop in the past 10 days, it does not seem uniform across the corporation’s five zones. Data with the civic body shows that the south and east zones, known for industrial and housing clusters, which were problematic with surge in cases, have managed to reduce transmission drastically but the west zone — with the city’s posh localities and commercial hubs — is seeing an uptick in cases.
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 zones, which were both reporting 400-500 cases each a day in May last week, had 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 operations of all industries except those in essential services,” said city health officer Dr S Raja. “This cut the transmission of infection from one affected employee to another,” said a health department official. The corporation insisted that the positivity rate is below 30%.
The civic body has been taking several control measures such as 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 door-to-door surveillance of houses near new positive cases. “This is to identify those with early-stage symptoms such as fever and sore throat,” said Raja.
The health department hopes the efforts will bear fruits in rural areas too, where the spike in cases is due to industrial clusters.
Meanwhile, the commercially focused west zone has been reporting the maximum number of cases in Coimbatore district for the past six days.
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 or due to high positivity rate,” said Raja. “There has been no new cluster in the zone,” he said.
During the first wave and beginning of the second wave in April, Coimbatore district saw many cases in R S Puram’s densely-populated residential areas, the crowded Poo Market and parts of Saibaba Colony. “Poo Market, Anna Market, Saibaba Colony Market, MGR Market and TK Market — all thickly populated areas — are in the west zone. The markets remained closed for the past three weeks which led to a drop in cases. This sudden increase in cases again could be an isolated incident and not necessarily a pattern,” said a corporation official.