CHENNAI: Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan on Friday asked all District Collectors and Greater Chennai Corporation officials to be on alert as the Covid-19 test positivity rate (TPR) has been on a rise for the past seven days. While the rise has been marginal, a few doctors said they were seeing a minor spike in the number of patients getting admitted of late.
The TPR, which stood at 0.97 per cent on September 4, reached 1 per cent on Friday. In his message to the Collectors, Radhakrishnan underlined that, unlike earlier, the current rise in cases is not linked to an increase in the number of tests, but is due to more people testing positive for the infection.
The Secretary told TNIE a few districts like Chennai, Chengalpattu, Tiruvallur, Coimbatore, Erode, Tiruppur, Nagapattinam, and Madurai were seeing TPR fluctuations. A worrying trend is the emergence of new clusters, mainly from work places, functions, and hospitals. On Friday, 17 clusters, amounting to 46 cases were reported in TN, including in Chennai. For instance, five cases were detected from one family in Mugalivakkam in the city.
‘Speed up vaccination drive’
The Health Secretary advised Collectors to enforce Covid-19 appropriate behaviour among the public, ensure contact tracing in new clusters, and speed up vaccination. Meanwhile, although admissions to government hospitals in Chennai remained at almost the same level over the past month, doctors at a few private hospitals said they were seeing an increase in the number Covid-19 patients.
Dr TN Ravishankar, founder of Sudar Hospitals in Tambaram, said: “In June and July, I didn’t see any Covid-19 case. However, in the last 10 days, I am seeing at least one Covid-19 patient a day. Now, the patients are complaining of gastrointestinal symptoms such as indigestion, vomiting, and uneasiness. Occurrence of fever and breathing distress have become less.”