Fifteen out of the 37 districts in Tamil Nadu have reported a seven-day average positivity rate of over 20%. According to the data available with the Medical Department, the overall seven-day average positivity rate — from May 11 to 17 — was 19.8%. Among the districts that reported a higher positivity rate than the State’s average were Chengalpattu, Theni, Coimbatore, Kanniyakumari, Thoothukudi, Nagapattinam, Ramanathapuram, Krishnagiri and Chennai. Chengalpattu alone topped 30%, with its seven-day average being 31.7%.
Though Chengalpattu’s positivity rate dropped from 38.2% on May 11 to 25.6% on May 17, the positivity rate in districts such as Theni and Coimbatore is on the rise. Theni’s positivity rate steadily rose from 23.2% on May 11 to 32.1% on May 17, while that of Coimbatore increased from 25.6% to 31.3% during the same period. In Chennai, which has been recording over 6,000 cases, the positivity rate was 25.1% (29,770 tested) on May 11. On May 17, the rate was 23.2% (26,468 tested).
“Cases are on the rising level in districts such as Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu, Coimbatore, Madurai and Thoothukudi. Among the worst-hit are districts such as Coimbatore and Tiruppur,” Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan said. Any early sign of decline was definitely not an indicator of the cases getting stabilised, officials said. “As far as the cases in Chennai are concerned, it is too early to say. It might be deceptive in the initial stages; so, we need to keep a watch,” he said.
“Recording 33,000 cases a day is a big number. It will take some more time to stabilise, and cases need to stabilise across the State,” added Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine T. S. Selvavinayagam.
“The high positivity rate indicates that more people are affected and that we need to increase testing to keep the potential cases under control. In Tamil Nadu, we have adopted a syndromic approach. Let us not wait for testing. Any person with a symptom such as upper respiratory infection will be assumed to be affected with COVID-19 and treatment will be initiated,” Dr. Selvavinayagam said.
While medical infrastructure is being ramped up, it is important to go to the root of the disease for prevention, he said. “Our strategy is to focus on how to ensure that the disease is contained. Containment areas and disinfection are among the main focus areas... to break the chain of transmission. Through effective containment measures, disease transmission... can be prevented,” he said.
Any rise in cases in semi-urban or rural parts of Tamil Nadu will hit the already limited health infrastructure in some of these areas, an official said. “In the first wave, the cases started to drop in Chennai but rose in many other districts such as Madurai, Virudhunagar and the spread of the virus reached till Kanniyakumari. Chennai has five major COVID-19 hospitals, a number of other government facilities and private hospitals. This is not the case in a number of districts, such as Sivagangai or Theni, that have only one main government hospital,” he said.
