Tamil Nadu: Active Covid cases jump by 728 in two weeks

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu added 1,661 new cases on Monday, against 1,697 cases registered on Sunday. But, active cases went up to 16,984 compared to 16,969 on Sunday.
In the last two weeks, active cases in TN rose by 728 cases from 16,258 on September 6, when there were 1,556 new cases. The health department has asked all districts to continue surveillance and targeted testing.New clusters reported from schools, family events, festivities and funerals have pushed up cases in Chennai, Thanjavur, Erode and Chengalpet.
On Monday, Chennai (206) and Coimbatore (211) were only two districts with over 200 cases each. The sharpest increase in active cases in the last two weeks was in Chennai, where it rose from 1,772 on September 6 to 2,043 on Monday. Erode and Chengalpet, which continue to report cases in three digits, have 1,405 and 1,252 active patients. “We are seeing a slow increase in some districts but if we don’t contain it soon cases will grow geometrically and then exponentially,” said health secretary J Radhakrishnan.
The weekly average positivity rate – the number of people tested positive over the total number of people tested – rose from 1.8% on September 9 to 2.4%, 10 days later. In TN, positivity rate increased to 1.1% from 1% during the same period. At least 11 districts including Coimbatore, Tirupur and Chengalpet had a positivity rate above the state average. Chennai had a positivity rate of 0.9%. “Investigations show violation of SOPS including mask and social distancing rules,” said director of public health Dr T S Selvavinayagam.
This, officials say, was not completely unexpected. “We expected the fall to slow down as we relaxed restrictions. While we are asking people to follow pandemic protocols, health officials are doing fever surveillance and contact tracing,” he said. On an average, the state tests at least 1.5 lakh people daily.
The 23 deaths on Monday took the death toll to 35,360. The case tally touched 26.47 lakh. Of the 23 deaths, Thanjavur reported five and Nagapattinam reported four. There were two each from Namakkal and Kallakurichi.